Defiance of fate
by Equinox73099
Summary: Alexander Polaris, Heir to the house of Polaris, has been brought up to be a ruler of a nation. but what happens when, in a desperate bid to salvage his childhood, his guardian sends him to Hogwarts as a third year, in the same year as harry potter. watch out Voldemort, the house of Polaris and potter combined may be more than any dark lord can handle. ext. summary inside. noslash
1. Chapter 1

Defiance Of Fate: A Harry Potter Fanfiction

I do not own harry potter, only any OCs i introduce to this magnificent world.

Extended summary: Many have heard the story of the Boy-Who-Lived, who defeated the Dark Lord Voldemort, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named, at just over 1 year old. Many have heard of his dark upbringing at the hands of his abusive muggle relatives. But… what if Harry managed to find a kindred spirit at Hogwarts, one who understands his pain and decides to aid the young potter with his considerable power, one such as the Lord Polaris, also the last of his line, Ruler of the Northern Alliance, a trio of islands North of britain that is sovereign to the British Magical government. Together, they may yet manage to drag Magical England to the modern ages and defeat their foes once and for all. Not Slash, going for a brothers in all but blood sorta thing, will plan ships once story has advanced to that point but main characters for sure not slash.

"_In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present_" -Francis Bacon

Chapter 1. Thunderstruck

_June 7th 1987_

Alexander was sure he was delirious from hunger, because what he was seeing in front of him had no other explanation. Before his eyes were three birds of the deepest blue, the smallest of the trio as large as a fully grown man, and the duo attacking it as large as three men each. Wind howling around them, rain falling in sheets, one of the duo opened its beak and a stream of lightning surged forth, striking the small bird in the side, causing it to let loose a haunting screech that, along with the ozone charged air, made Alexander's hair stand on end.

'I want to do something to help the little guy, but what can I do' the young child of just 7 thought, as the two titans continued their assault on the one who seemed small in comparison, ignoring Alexander entirely. The small creature looked to be on its last legs and could no longer even fly, barely managing to stand and let loose a bolt of lightning that seemed pathetic compared the one that earlier struck it. Alexander, without thinking any further just charged in front of the small cryptid, arms out in a defensive position, as though trying to shield the creature, hopeless though it may be. The two leviathan creatures only gave a moment's pause before firing lightning blasts that made even the first blast seem small, and alexander knew his end was coming, yet only wished to be able to fight back against such monsters. It was this combined wish, shared with the creature behind him, that allowed a bond the likes of which has not been seen in centuries to form, and through this bond, allowed a power alexander was unaware that he possessed to manifest itself.

Eyes glowing sparking blue, unaware of what he was doing yet guided through primal instinct, moved his hands in front of him and released an animalistic scream as a light blue, nearly white screen formed between him and the incoming bolts of destruction. The shield glowed brightly enough to compared with the lightning, and looked nearly solid, as though looking through a thick window pane. As the lightning struck the pearlescent wall protecting him and the creature behind him, a deafening sound similar to a gong sounded throughout the battle ridden park, and the will of the child proved superior to the power and anger of the creatures, causing the bolts to return to the behemoths at nearly double the speed they were fired at Alexander. The lightning struck and Alexander could smell burning flesh coming from them as they gave one last pain-filled, defeated screech and flew away.

As the shield faded, Alexander lowered his shaking arms, and started falling backwards, nearly passing out, only to be caught by the small creature he managed to save. Laying against the creature's side, Alexander was sure he was crazy, as he heard a voice speak in his head.

'_Thank you little legged one, you have more than likely just saved my life, those two have chased me nearly cross country in an attempt to end what they called an embarrassment to our species_' the creature almost sounded bitter near the end.

'You're welcome, but can I ask a few questions about what exactly just happened?' I questioned confusedly.

'_Of course little one, I shall endeavor to answer your questions to the best of my ability.' _ the creature sounded eager to aid his human savior.

'Alright first question, i've never seen a bird as large as you before, can i ask what you are?'

'_I am what you legged creatures, humans, call a thunderbird, your kind rarely ever sees us anymore, for there aren't many of us left, and most of us that are still here stay in the west, near deserted areas where our storms will not draw attention, long ago, you kind even had those who worshipped us, called us beings such as pamola, or tseiqami. We are creatures powered by storms, yet at the same time, our mere presence is enough to cause great thunderstorms. We live mainly in the clouds created by our storms, but will land to nest occasionally.'_

'Ok, mythological bird that isn't supposed to exist actually does, but it explains what happened here better than anything else I can think of besides me hallucinating, so let's go with it; next question, how can I hear you in my head?'

_'That would be because in both of our desires to survive the battle, our inner magics latched onto one another and formed a familiar bond. Congratulations little one, you are the first one to bond one of my kind in many years, and whilst I am not currently as large as my brethren, I swear to you that I shall one day be the strongest thunderbird alive, to properly aid my master.' _the thunderbird finished, voice soft yet as determined as steel.

'What do you mean inner magics, you mean magic is real too?!' Alexander sounded eager, betraying for the first time since the fight how young he truly was.

'_Yes little one, magic is real, and you are magical, a very powerful magical, or at least you will be one day from what i can feel from our bond.' _the thunderbird sounded like it was laughing inside his head. '_There are two worlds around you little one, there is the non-magical world, which you have lived in thus far for your life, and then there is the world hidden away from the non-magical world, a world that has hidden in fear of persecution of their kind, also known as witches and wizards, the magical world. That is the world you shall one day belong to little one, and I shall be here to guide you for as long as you'll have me.' _ the thunderbird spoke softly, yet Alexander could tell it meant every word, which caused him to tear up slightly, as he has been living in the streets for as long as he could remember, learning how to survive from other poverty stricken people. Alexander never made it into foster care or any other program, as every time he gets sent to one, he goes to sleep and wakes up back in his abandoned home where he felt safest from the world around him. 'Ok, well if you're planning on sticking around, we'll need a name for you, give me a second to think of a good one, oh by the way are you a boy or a girl?' he asked, having forgotten about that in lieu of stranger topics.

_'I am a female, little one.' _she said, happiness at being able to stay with her human radiating through their bond. 'Ummmmm, i like myth books, like greek mythology and stuff like that, I think there's a greek lightning goddess called Astrape, would you be ok with that name?'

'_I would love that name little one, may i know what i should call you as well, or would you prefer i keep using little one?' _Astrape said, teasing alexander slightly as he stuttered out his name.

'_Alexander, would you like to return home, I would be able to transport us there very quickly using my lightning flash.'_

'What is your lightning flash, astrape, is it some kind of magical travel' Alexander asked, childish wonder again seeping into his voice.

'_Yes, it allows me to convert my body to lightning temporarily and travel from one place to another I have pictured in my mind very quickly, as quickly as the magical form of travel witches and wizards use, i would be able to carry you along as well because of our familiar bond, if you are ready to return i would but have to peek at your memories through the bond to see where you live and we could go.' _once Astrape was finished explaining alexander agreed that he was ready to return home and thought about where he lived to make it easier for her to see it, then he felt his hair stand on end once more, and suddenly he was flying; no, not flying, he was being carried by astrape, moving at a speed seemingly beyond comprehension. Looking around, all he could see was light, blinding light, along with the stench of ozone. Still attempting to look, he realized he couldn't even see himself, which led alexander to believe he _was_ lightning for all intents and purposes, for he could not see his body, nor astrape's body, anywhere. As suddenly as this magnificent feat of magic began, it ended, and alexander found himself in an alley beside his home with a resounding crackle of thunder accompanying his landing. As he began looking around to be sure he actually was at his home, he realized he couldn't see Astrape anywhere

_'That is because of our familiar bond, Alexander, look upon your right shoulder'_ acceding to her request, he looked, and noticed an incredibly lifelike bird, in the shape of Astrape, tattoo'd onto his shoulder, and before his eyes, the head of the thunderbird turned and blinked at him.

'_This is a benefit to a true familiar bond such as we have formed alex'_ she started, giving him his first nickname, '_when a wizard or witch bonds to another magical creature, a full magical creature, not those foolish cats known as kneazles incapable of magic or owls and other non magical animals simply aware of magic, a mark is made upon the mages skin for the familiar to reside in, this mark allows me to sink down into the tattoo as you called it by simply touching it with so much as a feather, it allows a place to still be with my master discreetly in a non-magical setting.' _finishing explaining, the tattoo turned back away from his staring face back to its original position.

'This...is incredible Astrape, you have to teach me more cool magic like this!' he thought excitedly.

'_Alright little one, our magics differ in use, but I shall endeavor to teach you as much as I can.' _She said, chuckling at his eagerness to learn.

Unknown to both, Alexander had expended much more magical energy than either had thought to perform a wandless shield charm powerful enough to stop 2 thunderbird's attacks at once, and through this outpouring of energy, someone who had been searching for Alexander for a long while was able to locate him long enough to use a point-me spell, and was currently en route to his location for an impromptu meeting.

—-

Over the next few days Astrape was mainly teaching Alexander basic magical theory, such as teaching him to locate his magical core, and attempt to draw magic from his core to use in basic, intent based silent spells to clean up the condemned home he slept in. In order to access his magical core for the first time, Alex needed to enter a trance-like state and search himself for his core. It became extremely an extremely frustrating experience that caused more than one tantrum, yet he managed. His first time seeing his core was a similar experience to a sunrise, from darkness to blinding light encompassing him in a blue aura, so intense was the aura that Astrape was worried he would exhaust himself from sustaining it much longer, as she didn't expect him to even form an aura just from finding his core, which goes to show how strong he will truly be when he is fully matured. Later, Alexander compared it to seeing a small stream, and following it, only for it to open up into a great lake, or even an ocean of power.

After he was capable of readily accessing his core without overdoing it and overpowering his magic, Astrape started teaching him wandless magic, or her version of it.

_ 'Alex, most witches and wizards shall never be capable of mastering this magic, as most witches and wizards will never have the power to do so, as a matter of fact, most mages will never even locate their core because they don't have enough power to do so. It's like finding a needle in a haystack for them, so most just use a foci, such as a wand, or even the occasional ring. Because they become dependent on these foci, they lower their chances of mastering wandless magic to any degree even more, because they become incapable of pushing magical energy through their body without one. Because you've found your core so quickly, and managed pushing magic through your body to form the aura I saw, you should have no problems, so long as when you do get a wand you remember to keep practicing without one so you don't get dependent.' _she paused a moment '_now wandless magic for us thunderbirds is about intent, willpower, and focus. You must tell your magic what you want it to do, focus on that, focus on the task you wish your magic to perform, and use your willpower to bend magic to your will. An indomitable will can perform feats of magic otherwise thought impossible. We thunderbirds mostly use our magic to defend ourselves and create storms for sustenance as you have seen and heard, but we are capable of shaping the earth for nests, controlling the winds so we don't even have to move our wings to fly; We are capable of causing torrential downpours with our power. We can cause droughts and floods, earthquakes and eruptions, the most powerful of us EARNED our title as gods for our human worshippers. This is the magic I shall be teaching you, but in order to do that, we must start small, such as using the wind to gather all the dust and trash in this house and get rid of it.'_

'Alright Astrape, I'll do my best to make you proud' Alex said, and felt happiness and pride coming through their bond.

After 3 weeks his training was coming along well, he was slowly but surely learning proper control for his wandless magic, and learning more about the history of thunderbirds while he was at it. But today's lesson is interrupted by a sharp series of raps on the metal door to the building. Alex warily made his way to the front door to answer, Astrape ready to aid him in tattoo form if the need arises. He opens the door to find...a butler standing outside his door? The butler smiles at him and asks "may I enter your home young sir, i wish to have a conversation with you and I think it is one best suited for a private area."

"I… guess that would be alright, but be warned, my home isn't much." Alex replied, still on guard against the aging man.

Once in the sitting room the butler pulled out what could only be a wand and turned a small wooden chair into an ornate seat fit for royalty, doing the same for the one Alex was about to sit in. "now that we are comfortable," the man began. "I have come to give you information, and to ask a request of you, young lord."

'Lord?' Alex thought, confused.

'_I don't know either little one, best bring that up quickly before he moves on' _Astrape advised.

"What do you mean lord, sir?" he voiced his question out loud.

"I mean just that, and I shall explain myself with the information I wish to impart to you. You see, you are a lord, specifically the Lord Polaris, the last of your bloodline, a bloodline that was until recently thought lost to the world. I was cleaning an old heirloom vault in Polairix keep, the castle that is the seat of the house of Polaris, when i found a loose brick in the wall, pulling the brick out caused a chain reaction which caused a section of wall to cave in, onto me I might add; it was a fairly painful experience being pelted with loose stone, but I digress, the wall caved in and lo and behold, a door was revealed to me, beyond said door I found more heirlooms, but most shocking amongst them was a copy of the Polaris family tapestry, a magical item that records all of the blood of Polaris. There is a second tapestry in your public study, but the difference between these was that this one hidden away, there was a divergence in the bloodline, from what I gathered from the tapestry, the Lord Ozymandias Polaris was apparently unfaithful with a woman of non-magical descent, and to hide his shame, created an entirely new tapestry and stashed the original, out of sight out of mind as it were. But this line continued going down and down until it ended on the name 'Alexander Polaris'. Now what this told me was that you were alive, which meant the polaris bloodline, which was thought to have died out shortly before grindelwald made his bid for power, was alive and well. Upon informing the other rulers of the Northern alliance of this, I in my power as steward of Polairix keep, was given the task of finding the young ruler, a task which until recently I thought hopeless as i thought you were non-magical until just over a month ago.

"On june 7th, the device I had set to detect magic from the blood of polaris nearly exploded before I had the chance to turn off and cast a point me at you. Over the course of the next month i followed your sporadic bursts of magic to track you down my lord, and offer you your rightful place as ruler of the northern alliance, the Lord of the North, as it were." the man finally finished his speech, leaving alexander stunned that he was apparently wizarding royalty, and not only that, he was being offered the opportunity to get the hell out of the poverty stricken life he was currently living, it seemed like a win-win to him!

'_I urge caution alex, we do not know what being this Lord Polaris entails fully, nor do we know if he is being completely truthful to begin with'_ at Astrape's caution he calmed slightly, yet he was still excited.

"Can you give me proof of what you are telling me, sir?" he asked.

"I can apparate us directly to Polairix my lord and show you i am being truthful, my lord."

"Apparition?" he questioned.

"A form a wizarding travel, similar to what non-magicals would call teleportation, except uncomfortable when unused to this particular form of travel."

"Ah, well then let's go have a look, if you're being truthful then i'll do just about anything to get out of here."

'_Little one, make sure his loyalties lie with you first, before leaving with him.'_

"Tell me sir, do you have a way of confirming that you are loyal to me first, before anyone else, I want to insure i am not going somewhere I will be hurt." Alex said, heeding Astrape's advice, happy that she understood how desperately he wanted to leave this place.

"I can swear a magical oath to you if you wish my lord, these are not meant to be sworn lightly as loopholes in wording or a simple error on the part of the oath-giver, can cause said person to lose their magic, or even their life, depending on what they swear on, but I shall endeavor to prove my loyalty to you-_ I, Alcar Magni Sovus, swear on my life and magic that my loyalty lies first with the blood of house Polaris, so mote it be_." he said before Alex could stop him, as once Alex was aware of the dangers didn't want him to needlessly endanger himself, and a gray glow lit the room, to be followed by a light coming from the man's wand, signifying he still had his magic.

A moment of silence followed his declaration, then Astrape spoke up in the young lords mind, '_I suppose after a stunt such as that, we have no choice but to place our faith in him for now little one.'_

_ "_Yea i guess so," Alex began out loud, showing just how shocked he was that someone would risk their life just to prove a point. "Alright Mr. Alcar, I'll go with you, but I won't guarantee that I'll be this Lord Polaris you talk about yet, ok?"

Alcar was bemused for a moment wondering who he was speaking to when the lord first started talking, but snapped out of it to bring up a smile and replied, "Understood my lord, it is only proof of your intelligence that you refuse to walk blindly into a role without knowing what it entails, I promise that all shall be explained at Polairix. Now then, grab onto my arm, yes that's right, make sure you grip tightly, this can be quite disorienting for new users but it becomes easier with repetition." suddenly alex felt a squeezing sensation as though he were being pushed through a garden hose, and with a distinct *POP* they were standing in a large courtyard garden full of plants that alex had never seen nor heard of before.

"Welcome to castle Polairix my lord, the seat of house Polaris, the unbroken castle that has never before fallen to darkness since its construction before the time of merlin and morgana." Alcar spoke, only to hear a retching and turned around to see Alex vomiting in a nearby bush. "Ah, yes, like I said, apparition can be disorienting for the first few times but it does honestly get better."

"Never again, Alcar, never again." Alex managed to get out around bouts of heaving, wondering if all wizards were such sadists.

The steward only chuckled in reply, but began leading him towards a wooden door on the side of the courtyard the castle was on. Closing in on the entryway, Alex noticed many strange marks on both the door and the door frame, "What's up with the weird writing?" he asked.

"Those would be runes, you will find many of those inside the castle and in the surrounding areas. Polairix is the most protected home in the world for a reason, one of the specialties of house Polaris is runes, and another is warding, together they become much stronger, runes strengthening wards, wards covering rune-circles, sometimes creating entirely new wards between themselves. The castle is lined with runes on most every wall to strengthen them, runes on every door to limit access to those on the ward-book, and strengthen the doors so that not even a troll could break through. Windows and arrow slits have rune-wards to stop physical objects and spells from coming through yet still allow allies to fire outwards. The front gate has a malevolent intent ward that stops those that wish us harm from coming through. There are many more, in fact, at last count, Polairix had over 300 wards protecting the castle and surrounding land, we are protected from most any threat here by the intelligence of your ancestors. Every Lord Polaris that has lived in this hallowed hall has added some form of defense to it, and should you accept your status as lord and stay here, you shall one day learn enough to add to this place as well." Alcar finished his long winded explanation slash speech.

"About that, now that we're here, what exactly does being Lord Polaris mean?" Alexander asked.

"The lordship you possess means that one day, when you are ready, you shall take over as head of the northern alliance and become ruler of this land. You shall be schooled in many subjects, both magical and non-magical, and receive training in both body and mind to prepare you for this role. It also means you have the responsibility of being a ruler, you must comport yourself as befitting your role, in the north at the very least, you must be steadfast with foreign bodies, such as the british magical government, who have been leasing the isle of Azkaban from the count of skossou, one of your fellow rulers whom you shall meet when you are ready. It also means you shall need to continue your line fairly early, so as not to risk line extinction, which is what was thought happened unt-"

"WAIT! You mean i'm gonna have to find a girlfriend?!"

"Not immediately my lord, but preferably before you turn 20, and hopefully by the time you are 18, you shall find one who is worthy of the title of Lady Polaris."

"This talk needs to be held at a later date then, I'm way too young to worry about that kinda stuff." he whined.

"Very well my lord." Alcar managed to get out around his chuckles.

Continuing through the corridors of the castle, they walked through an arched doorway into what had to be the largest library Alex had ever seen. It seemed to go up at least 4 floors with 2 spiral staircases in the center of the room leading to the upper floors. There were bookshelves going up at least 12 feet lining the outer walls floor to ceiling, with multiple rows of bookshelves covering the floor in straight rows, tables situated in set areas between the shelves for comfortable reading areas. Looking back at the staircases Alex could also see they went downwards, for how far he couldn't tell but he was sure it was at least as far as it went up. In the corner closest to the door on the right, sat a middle-aged gentleman behind a counter reading a newspaper, and upon seeing him, Alcar made to converse with the man.

"Hello Eolas, how goes the tome raiding, or are you just gossip-starved today." Alcar said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"Oh I think the raiding's goin' well, no books to reorganize at the moment as I'm happy as can be with the current order of things, at least for the moment. As to the accusation of little ol' me being gossip hungry, i can assure you _The Daily Prophet_ gets their information correct at least a quarter of the time, although this issue may not help me to prove my point very well." he managed to finish speaking before his lips curved slightly upwards, showing his amusement at the banter that seemed to be the norm between the two. "Now who's this little tyke?" he asked, a slight irish lilt being the only thing to betray his heritage.

"This is young Alexander, Alexander **Polaris**, that is." he finished smugly, as though lording some achievement over the younger man.

"Well...well...well… finally found the kid, eh. Took ya long enough, it did. I would've drank animal blood for a year betting against you, glad i only gamble when a good books on the line, eh old man?" Eolas was openly smiling at this point, trading barbs with Alcar.

"Um, what do you mean, drinking animal blood Mister Eolas?" Alex asked, confused as to why anyone would do that.

"I was referring to the condition I have, little lord. You see I'm a vampire, meanin' i drink blood, can be human or animal, but I can tell you that human blood tastes a damn sight better than any animal's blood. Now back to the old man, how'd you find the kid, you were looking for months not finding hide nor hair then you got lucky, spill the beans old-timer."

Alcar's eye twitched slightly at all the shots about his age, "We both know you've got centuries on me, so why don't you quit calling me old, you old bat."

"Wait, Eolas is a vampire, that's so cool! Do you really drink human blood? Can you turn into a bat like the movies? Do you have pointy teeth? Are you super strong? Can you-"

"Slow down there brat and I'll try to answer your questions. Yes, I can drink human blood, prefer it in all honesty. There's a blood bank in the town that supplies any of my kind with donations from the townsfolk, very decent of them compared to most places. No, I can't turn into a bat, I'm not an animagus, although I'm sure there are some animagus vampires out there. Yes i do have pointy teeth, though not just two like you probably thought" he opened his mouth to show that every one of his pearly whites were fanged. " Back to the topic, yes I do have more strength than any average human, I also have enhanced senses, such as sight, smell, and hearing, taste not so much, but thats just cause vampires don't really eat anything besides blood unless they have to in order to maintain cover; my touch is also the same as it was, although my skin is slightly harder now, and never blemishes. Also, no I am not allergic to garlic, I cannot have direct contact with sunlight, so I stick to cloudy days mostly but i can use an umbrella or sit in a boot if I need too, although that is not desirable. And yes, a stake is deadly to me, as is any other sharp objects stabbing me in the heart, also a good decapitation would end me, so let's try to avoid that eh." Eolas finished his mini-speech patiently, understanding the lad's curiosity, although getting asked the same questions by non-magicals all the time got annoying, he could never hold it against children that were so innocent in the ways of the world.

"Cool." Alex breathed "Are you the librarian here?" he asked.

"That I am, and a researcher if the need calls for it, seeker of knowledge, man of wisdom, all that rot." Eolas said in a put-on haughty manner that alex could tell was fake. "Being around 750 does come with the perks of learning a lot and gathering a lot of information. I've been running this place for at least 300 of those years, I've seen a great many Lords Polaris step into my center of learning, and some of them actually manage to leave smarter than they entered." he finished with a wink.

"Or some of them go on a drunken tear from one of your story nights." Alcar spoke, causing the librarian to visibly wince.

"One bloody time and they never let you live it down…" he muttered.

"Yes, one time that nearly caused him to try and literally tickle a sleeping welsh green." Alcar deadpanned.

"Yea yea yea, what're you still doing here, don't you need to show the little lord here around the rest of the castle. There'll be plenty of time for me to tell the kid more stories later, and you're starting to intrude on my free time." he finished playfully pushing Alcar towards the door.

"But I wanna look at the books." Alex whined petulantly.

"Tell you what lad, once you get settled, come on back and we can pick at some books together eh." he spoke kindly, smiling to show his sincerity.

"That sounds great!" The young lord spoke excitedly.

"Well come along then my lord, the sooner we can finish the tour the sooner we can get you settled in, if you choose to stay of course." The steward spoke patiently, understanding the child's excitement, eyes crinkling and showing his happiness that the last Polaris seemed to be enjoying himself.

—-

The rest of the tour took the most of the remaining day, with Alcar explaining some of the history of the more important parts of the castle, leaving Alexander suitably awed of what his apparent ancestors were capable of. The tour wound up taking them by a large bedroom, which Alcar pointed out would be Alex's own should he decide to stay, so the young lord practically ran into the room to get a closer look at it. The bed was large, king size, with maroon curtains drawn around the sides preventing peeking through. Upon opening the curtains he saw the sheets and pillowcases matched the deep red but the comforter itself was a royal purple with a sigil sewn onto it. The crest was a great shining star, with two smaller stars shining behind it.

"That is your house crest my lord. The 3 Polaris stars that non-magicals call, Aa, Ab, and B. the brightest in the sky, they shine more than any other in the sky. The house of Polaris, throughout their history, have for the most part produced some of the most powerful wizards and witches of their ages without doubt. They are always path-pavers, the first to travel roads before unpaved, to lead the way for those behind them, and protect them if necessary. The motto of your house is _lux in tenebris_, which means 'light in the darkness'. Your ancestors have quite a legacy my lord. A legacy of battle and bloodshed to be sure, but also a legacy of knowledge and morality, for any Polaris that fought against what is good in the world, was always dealt with by another Polaris. I do not tell you this to force you to be as light as you can be, the house of Polaris has always toed the line with light and dark, if anything you are considered a gray as you will use the darkest of methods if necessary to combat the evils of the world."

'I don't think there's any leaving for us at this point, astrape, I've heard pretty much all i need to hear.' Alex thought solemnly

'_So long as you are sure little one, if you wish to leave you need but say so and I would spirit us away from here, though I do not know how to prevent them from tracking us again.' _Astrape thought fondly, proud of her master for being so strong of mind and morals at such a young age

'I know astrape, I'm happy that you'll always be there for me' he thought back, and though he did not say the words, Astrape could feel love radiating through the bond and felt touched her master cared so much.

"Alcar, I've made my decision, I'll stay. I'll stay and become the Lord Polaris, and I'll do my best to make my ancestors proud of me in the process." Alexander stated, shoulders straight and showing a glimpse of the powerful man he could become.

"Very well, my lord, I shall inform the others tonight, but you should get yourself settled in, I can send someone to your old house to fetch any belongings, if you wish?"

"Nah, there's nothing I really want there, but do you have a birdcage by any chance?" Alex asked meekly.

"A...birdcage, why would you want a birdcage, my lord." he questioned, honestly puzzled.

"I… might have been hiding something from you today Mr. Alcar, and please don't call me my lord unless you absolutely have too. I'd much prefer Alex or Alexander. But yea… I might have a familiar already that's been teaching me magic." he finished quickly, partially wanting to keep Astrape his secret, but also wanting to ensure that she could be comfortable and have snacks if she wanted them.

"A familiar? What familiar could possibly teach magic? It would have to be a magical creature...and an intelligent one at that." Alcar was nearly being overwhelmed with curiosity at this point, seriously wondering what familiar his lord had managed to find that could teach him at such a young age.

"Ok Astrape, come out of your tattoo, let's show him." The boy said, and a small mist could be seen flowing out of his sleeve, and reforming in the air around his shoulder. The mist then proceeded to take the shape of a bird and solidify, forming a perfectly miniature thunderbird perched on the young lord.

"You...you have a THUNDERBIRD AS A FAMILIAR!" He shouted, awed at the impossibility he was seeing before him.

"You don't have to shout…" Alex pouted. "But yes i do, i saved her life from two other thunderbirds months ago, and we bonded as a result. She has also been teaching me magic, but I don't need to use a wand for what she's teaching me like you do with yours." Alcar was flummoxed at this point. Not only did his lord have a creature that hasn't bonded with a human in centuries as a familiar, the creature was also teaching him wandless magic at 7 years old!

Alcar just started chuckling, deciding to go with the flow because he wasn't sure what else was in store with his new lord. "Well my lor- Alex, I shall be back with a birdcage for...Astrape i believe you called her in just a few minutes, do you have any other surprises i should be aware of." he finished jokingly.

"Not that I know of..." Alex responded awkwardly.

After waiting in the bedroom around 40 minutes, as alex began wondering if something had happened to his steward, Alcar returned slightly out of breath but carrying the requested birdcage, and along with it a small box in his other hand.

"As requested, a perch for Astrape, alex. Along with that, I took the liberty of bringing you the heir ring for house polaris from your heirloom vault under the castle. This ring should protect you from minor compulsive charms and potions, such as love potions, though the stronger ones such as amortentia and the imperius curse will still break through with ease. Along with that, the ring will flash if a substance that is poisoned comes within 3 feet of your person. Once you are old enough to take on the mantle of Lord Polaris, you shall get the Lord's ring, which increases the distance for the poison flash to nearly 7 feet, and makes you completely immune to most curses and potions besides the imperius, that curse is just too strong to be overpowered with anything other than sheer willpower and stubbornness. Now then my lord, putting on this ring confirms that you shall accept your responsibilities to your house, and should you accept, that is that, there will be no backing out afterwards, understand?" he finished sternly but not unkindly.

Alex only responded by holding out his hand for the ring box. Upon opening the box he sees a silver ring shining inside with the same crest from his bedspread showing on it. As he puts on the ring, he notices a blue glow in the area around him, and realizes the ring is bringing forth his aura, as though judging his worthiness to his house. Not to be proven unworthy he summoned more of the aura, causing the air in the room to grow stifling, heavy even, pushing harder and harder, pulling out even more magic, the steward began to smell ozone in the air, and noticed small bursts of lightning crackling around the lord. Finally, the blue aura was surrounded by a white one on top of it, and both faded. Alex felt knowledge entering his head, knowledge he shouldn't yet possess, such as which wards surround the castle and grounds, secret rooms in the castle he can now access, and the location of his family vaults in a series of caverns under the castle, even more heavily warded than Polairix itself. The young Polaris just managed to stumble close enough to the bed that he fell onto it instead of the floor, mind nearly overloaded from all that he just learned, Only knowing what the problem was was all that prevented Astrape from rushing to his aid from her perch.

After nearly a minute of information overload, the young heir managed a groan and moved to cover his eyes with his arm. "Hurts...hurts a lot." he whispered. "Do you have anything for a headache Alcar?"

"I did expect something like this would happen, so I also asked for a mild pain relief draught, my lord." The steward pulled out a small vial as large as a finger, and alex greedily grabbed it and chugged the whole thing, only to drop the vial and put his hand over his mouth to stop from vomiting. "Yes, they are quite vile, my apologies alex but you drank it before I could warn you about the taste."

"Vile? It's poison!" Alexander cried out. "D'you at least have something to wash it down with?" he croaked, still not sure whether he was going to puke or not.

"I did not, but the staff can solve that problem for us young alex, blinky!" he called out, and a small *POP* was heard as a creature that looked entirely too similar to a certain green jedi from a film for alex apparated into the room.

"Sir called Blinky?" the creature inquired.

"Yes Blinky, would you please get us some refreshments, i would prefer water but i think the young lord would like something different."

"What would master be wanting, sir?" Blinky asked, peering at alex from his bedside.

"Umm do you have soda here, if not that then maybe juice?" he replied, not sure what drinks were actually available.

"We's don't have soda, but we do have juice, which would you like master Polaris sir?

"Uhh grape i guess." the boy continued analyzing the creature as he responded, only for the creature to momentarily disappear then reappear with 2 glasses of water and juice, respectively.

"Water for sir and grape juice for master." Blinky spoke with a flourish, eager to please.

"Thank you Blinky, I think that will be all." Alcar finished and took a sip of his water.

"Actually Blinky, can i ask what you are, and why you're calling me master?" alex requested, not particularly wanting to be anyone's, or thing's in this case, master.

"Blinky is a house elf, sir, and Blinky be callin' you master because you be her master." Blinky spoke, grabbing her right ear and wringing it slightly. "If master prefers a different elf, Blinky could tell the other elves sir, there be 5 of us to help the castle staff." Blinky finished worriedly, hoping she hadn't already offended her new master.

"No, it's not that blinky, I just don't really want to be anyone's master, I'd much prefer to be your friend if you're okay with that?" Alex spoke with a shy smile.

"Sir wants to be Blinky's friend? Sir truly is a great master, Blinky is happy to serve such a great lord as one who befriends us elves sir!" Blinky finished eagerly, then vanished with a wave and a *POP*.

After a moment of silence, alex said "well that was weird." causing a chuckle to rise out of Alcar.

"House elves are like that alexander, they live to serve wizards and witches, they form bonds with us you see, our magic fuels their life force. Without a witch or wizard to bond with, house elves eventually go insane, then even farther past they will wither and perish. I know Blinky and the other elves may seem overly eager at times to serve, they are truly happy here, there are other less civilised wizards who choose to abuse their house elves instead of welcoming them into their families, just remember to treat them kindly please, my lord." Alcar spoke seriously.

"I will Alcar, it's horrible that people would abuse someone just because they can, I'll never do that to them." the young lord voiced his thoughts on the matter, causing Alcar to smile and clap him on the shoulder.

"And I am immensely happy to hear that, my lord. Now, you've had a very exhausting day, and it will only continue on into the morrow. By the next week you shall start your education, now won't that be fun?" he smiled as Alex groaned. "You should get your rest Alexander, so you will be ready to face what the next days will bring. Sleep tight."

"Goodnight Alcar." the child yawned, already showing signs of his fatigue. Astrape flew off her perch and landed on the pillow next to alex, tucked her beak into her wing, and slipped into unconsciousness herself.

—-

The next few days were little more than a blur for Alexander. It was a mixture of getting settled and acquainted with the castle and staff, and getting essential items for the near future such as a new wardrobe, and a wand. Truthfully, it is not recommended for most magicals to purchase a wand before they turn at least 10, because their core is unstable from not being fully formed; But the sheer size of Alexander's magical energy led to the idea to allow him to get one to begin practicing human magic, as while his lessons were still continuing with Astrape, he also wished to learn how to use spells as well.

It was snowing outside the castle as the woman and her assistant exited the carriage they had rode in on, grabbing a leather bag too large to be a purse but too small to backpack, and began walking towards to large front door of Polairix. Both were understandably anxious, having been summoned to get the measurements for the wand of the new lord of the land. As they were nearly at the double doors they suddenly swung outward, nearly catching the assistants leg that had begun to step forward. Behind the door was the steward that had called for them, beckoning them inside with a wave and a smile, attempting to ease their nerves. Entering the palace, they saw the boy who was to be their lord in a few short years sitting at a table on the side of the room reading a book with a middle aged gentleman sitting across from him, translating from what appeared to be very old paper, possibly even papyrus, onto a more modern book.

"Ayla's wand-crafting services at your..well service my lord." she stuttered out nervously, hoping the child did not have a short temper nor a cruel heart.

"Hello, please just call me Alex, or if you have to defer to me in some way, then sir will do, I'm still very new to this whole lord thing." he said shyly, hoping to calm her some, as even he noticed she was nearly shaking. Thankfully, that seemed to do the trick, as her shoulders slumped and she suddenly seemed much more relaxed, though she still seemed a tad uncomfortable. 'Maybe she's just a private person.' Alex thought.

"Alright sir, give me just a moment to prepare a workstation, then we may begin constructing your wand." suddenly she took the boxes from her assistant, laid them on the ground in a row, and tapped each once with her wand. Suddenly all 3 boxes grew to be over 3 feet tall and stretched themselves to be nearly 4 feet wide. All the lids of the chests opened, and tables revealed themselves, rising from the bottom of the trunks. Each table had an odd item assortment on it, one had many different types of woods on it, another many different types of seemingly random items, such as feathers or hairs, and another had small gems on it, appearing for all to be a small fortune just laying there.

The crafter gave another glance at the boy slapped her cheeks lightly with both hands, then beckoned him over. "Now sir, first let's see which wood you are, yes? Just touch each wood with your hands until you find the one."

"What do you mean by the one ma'am? How will i know which one is mine?" the young lord asked, confused.

"Just trust me my lord, you'll know, every witch or wizard has a wood that just feels **it** to them. It will feel right, and once you find yours, you will know which one I mean." shrugging his shoulders in an 'alright' manner, he began moving a hand over each wood, grasping each stick before moving on to the next. Finally he came across a dark brown wood, that was nearly a red, that he **knew** was for him, but strangely, as he went to pick it up, his hand brushed against the stick next to it, which was a lighter brown, closer to tan but still a hint of darker brown. It...also felt right to the boy, as though both were a part of him, another appendage, like an arm or a leg. So, he picked them both up.

"I know what you mean now, you were right, but umm… both of these sticks feel like that for me?" he said it as a question.

"Most interesting… it would appear that the qualities of both wands call to you. The cherry wood is the wood of a warrior, a fighter; it is a lethal wood if ever there was one and shows you shall be a very strong foe to your enemies. The second is...cedar. Cedar shows the qualities of a shrewd, perceptive individual who is fierce in the defense of those they care for. Truly my lord, one day you shall be a mighty wizard capable of great things." she finished quietly, wondering just how great this new lord could be with what he is capable of. Suddenly she seemed to snap out of a trance and said "right, well let's move on to your wand core now sir, i must admit to being curious about just how much you will surprise me THIS time." she finished with a chuckle.

So off the young polaris went to the second table, repeating the previous process yet this time, nothing on the table rang true for him, nothing felt like a part of him he couldn't do without. Suddenly it seemed like lightning struck the table and everyone was forced to look away from the flash. Glancing at the table after a few seconds, alex noticed a black mark on the table where the miraculous lightning struck, but in the scorch mark was 2 blue feathers. With everything coming back into focus he heard Astrape chuckling in his mind, '_try those little one, with our bond they should serve you better than any inferior core.'_

'Ok Astrape, thank you!' he responded.

"The wand maker looked down and gaped at the feathers she saw, shocked beyond belief at what she knew they were. "Thunderbird feathers…" she breathed.

Alex ran his hand over them and smiled victoriously "yes these feel right!" he shouted, only to look embarrassed by his outburst a second later.

"Well then let's move onto the next part sir, the foci the core channels your magic through." she urged eagerly, much more excited now that she was able to work with such rare materials.

Moving onto the gemstone filled table, he once again began touching the items on the table, finding his first match in a small blue greenish gem. "Aquamarine, many sailors wore jewelry with aquamarine because they thought it would provide them some protection from the harsh seas. It is thought to symbolize courage, clarity, and good health to non-magicals, and the magicals it shows the user has a predisposition towards elemental magic, especially water magic." nodding to show he understood, Alexander moved back to the stones, looking for his second match, which turned out to be a red gem two rows up from the aquamarine. "A ruby, I should have guessed that sir. The ruby is thought to symbolize courage, life force, and passion, which I can tell from your wand wood and core that you will have plenty of all of those. To magicals it represents an affinity with fire, meaning that those will always come easy to you, similar to the relationship between aquamarine and water."

"Now let's get to making you-"she was interrupted.

"Umm sorry, but you never told me what the thunderbird feather represented, and I'm curious, if you don't mind that is." the boy tacked on quickly.

"Oh did I not, well the feather itself doesn't symbolize much, as no one ever uses thunderbird materials in a wand, it's too difficult to actually get the materials to be worth it. But the thunderbird itself represents power, protection, and strength, and just through guesswork, I'm sure that you will have an affinity with the lightning element from the feather core." she replied. "Now onto the wand creation itself." she said as she motioned her assistant over from where she had been sitting in the corner of the hall. "Yes ma'am?" the assistant asked.

"Be a dear and get the table set up while i gather up his wand-parts dorothy."

Dorothy fumbled in her pocket for a moment before pulling out a box around a foot long and a few inches thick and enlarging it into a table.

"Interns my lord, you know how it is when kids are trying to learn on the job, I'll never turn down some help for the shop but merlin help them they get so nervous they'll mess something up every time, without fail. Will they? Of course they will, but it's all a learning experience if they truly want to be a wand-crafter." she spoke seemingly to herself, yet resolutely, showing none of her introverted nature for a few moments.

Once at the table she laid down the two woods first, placing the feathers on top of them, then the ruby on top of them. She started with the cherry wand first, placing her hands over it and beginning a chant in a language that Alex couldn't even guess what it was. After a few seconds the feather seemed to merge into the wood, followed shortly by the ruby. "Just like i thought, ruby on cherry, aquamarine on cedar." she mumbled absently, finished with the first chant. Repeating the same process on the other pile, she then proceeded to grab the stylised sticks and handed the first one, a 10 inch cherry and thunderbird core wand with swirls around the hilt leading all the way to the tip of the wand, to alex. Upon grabbing it, a great shower of red, gold, and silver sparks shot out of the end of the wand, covering their small group until they dissipated. She repeated the process with the 13 inch cedar and thunderbird feather wand, which also repeated the spark shower.

Then she motioned her assistant to begin packing up, and began speaking to Alcar and Alex. "I'm assuming i should just bill the Polairix account, sirs?" she asked

"Yes that will be fine" Alcar replied.

"Very well, also if I may make a request my lord, I do truly enjoy my job, and all that it entails, and I find myself highly interested in your thunderbird feather cores. Should anything...interesting happen with them, would you be willing to owl me or call me or..well anything really and let me know. It's my first time working with them and I am very curious as to what they'll be capable of, and what you will be capable of sir." she began. "As i said my lord, these are two unique wands, and they show great promise from their master. I daresay there will be as many stories told about you as the most famous of your ancestors sir."

"Thank you, and yea I'll let you know if anything cool or weird happens with them." he voiced eagerly, happy to be owning not one, but two wands!

—-—-After a week of getting situated, Alcar managed to locate a small number of tutors to begin Alexander's education, both muggle and magical. Alex had managed to attend school before but he never stayed long at any of them as he always wound up back in the old abandoned house he used to live in. slowly but surely he was working through what he needed to catch up on in muggle education, and actually working ahead in the magical education because of his age as most magical educations don't formally start until the children's cores are fully formed at 11 years old. He was being taught mathematics, science, and composition for muggle classes starting off, and charms, transfiguration, potions, runes, astrology, and defense for magical classes. The way Alcar figured, he shouldn't need arithmancy until he is more advanced in mathematics so it was left off the list; The same with alchemy, as potions was a core aspect in most alchemical rituals; But Alcar did look for tutors in those areas for when he is ready. All of this on top of his lessons from Astrape, which Alcar kept a secret from most everyone except essential parties, left the young lord drained most every day.

As the days drew into weeks, and weeks into months though, Alex grew used to his intensive yet satisfying schedule. He was learning loads about how magic worked for most wizards, yet he still kept an open mind to some things they thought were not possible, as he thought Astrape might tell him otherwise, and he trusted her more than any teacher.

The steward saw daily the powerhouse his ward/ lord would become, and grew prouder every time the boy did something new to surprise him.

But as months drew into years, Alcar began to realize he was making a mistake in what he was doing. In bringing in the child and raising him, he had indeed brought the lord Polaris in to Polairix, but in doing so he was creating a sociopath because in bringing him here, he was denying him contact with others his age, leaving him socially stunted and lacking in emotion. So in a last ditch effort he decided to enroll his ward into a school for him to be around others his age and make friends. If not friends, at least allies or acquaintances that could help him act his age instead of the lord Alcar had nearly shaped him up to be. Upon informing the young lord, he was not happy to say the least.

"YOU BRING ME HERE TO BE A LORD, I DO MY DAMNEDEST TO BECOME A LORD, AND WHAT DO YOU DO? YOU TELL ME I NEED TO LEARN TO RELAX AND ACT MY AGE! YOU NEED TO MAKE UP YOUR MIND ALCAR, WHICH DO YOU WANT?" The young lord yelled, frustrated that Alcar seemed suddenly displeased by him and who he was.

Alcar winced, understanding the young lord's anger and understanding even more who was at fault in the situation. "When I brought you here," he began softly, "I was over-eager as i had found the lord i had been searching for months for, and when I arrived and found a child who needed to be nurtured just as much as taught how to rule, well you understand my failings. I truly am sorry, you are not at fault here alex, the blame lies solely with me, which is why I am attempting to correct it by giving you some semblance of a childhood while I still can. By sending you to a boarding school instead of a day school, I can ensure that you don't have to deal with the hassle of being lord until you have finished said childhood. Please just give it a try. If you are truly unhappy at the end of the year, we can discuss why, and if I have truly failed, I will withdraw you and you can continue as you have been here." he finished sadly, wished he had been more capable of a guardian to the young boy who had entered the castle with him.

Alex was fuming, yet took a few moments to calm down so he could rationally answer his father figure. "I don't like it. I don't like it one bit, but if it's truly what you want, I can give it a shot for a year to make you happy."

'I don't want you to do it to make me happy, I want you to be happy.' Alcar thought, but instead said. "Thank you my lord, I can only hope that you find friends to make the school worthy enough to continue learning there." Alcar knew that he would be several years worth of knowledge ahead of those his age, but he was desperate to salvage some portion of his childhood. "Now we must get your things ready for september 1st, as that is when the train that goes to Hogwarts departs."

"What kind of a name for a school is Hogwarts, anyways." Alex sulked.

"Yes it is a rather dodgy name, but it is supposed to have highly qualified teachers, and i understand most of what you will find there is simple revision for you, so we can pack a library trunk for you to take with you to study with. I do hear the library at Hogwarts is nearly as good as the one here, so maybe you will find some things worth studying there

"Urghh, let's just get ready Alcar, they're never gonna know what hit them when i get there." he suddenly said deviously.

Alcar suddenly feared that he might be making a terrible mistake.

—-—-

AN: I understand it seems rushed at parts, but honestly first chapters are storykillers, especially with ocs you wanna explain some of the backstory of, and i wanna get to Hogwarts just as much as you guys wanna read about harry hermione and the gang. I also understand at the start I said I'd be planning ships later, but damn it i started having ideas while i was writing, and I think im gonna ship Alexander with either tonks or daphne, and probably harry with hermione. Fair warning will probably be some ron bashing in this story. I have no set update schedule as trying to write on a schedule just doesn't work well for me and I like where this stories going so i don't want to lose motivation to write it. Your beginning writer, cya next chapter.


	2. Chapter 2: welcome to the jungle

Defiance of Fate: chapter 2

Welcome to the jungle

I do not own harry potter, only any ocs i introduce to this wonderful world.

Constructive criticism only if you gotta hate pls.

"_It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept_ _off to." _

― **J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings**

**September 1st, 1993**

The young Polaris stood at King's Cross station, between platforms 9 and 10, wondering where the hell he was supposed to find platform 9 ¾. 'They can't just make things easy and have a door with a muggle repelling ward can they?' he thought angrily. 'No they just have to make things difficult and hide the doors from all but the omnipotent'

'_I don't think they are hidden quite that well, little one.' _Astrape said, tittering in his mind.

'Well if you're so smart then where is the door Astrape?' he thought, going through his occlumency routine to calm down.

_'I do not know little one, but I am sure if we take a seat and watch somewhere, that we will find someone who does, after all, we were here early for a reason'_ She reasoned.

'Yeah i guess you're right, it's just, you know how impatient I am!' he finished almost whiningly.

'_Indeed alex, just take a seat and relax, and we should find someone soon.'_

'Alright, but only cause you reasoned it so I can't argue it without looking dumb.'

Finding a bench nearby to settle on, he touched a small pouch on the necklace he was wearing, and accio'd a book out of the pouch, book warping as it left the much smaller pouch to fit out of it. Faking interest in the book, sure he would have to reread the chapter later when he could be bothered to pay attention, he began watching the crowds moving through the station.

After maybe 15 minutes of his surreptitious spying he noticed a girl his age moving forward dragging a trunk behind her, but that wasn't what captured his interest. His interest was captured by the orange fur ball he was sure was a kneazle in a cat carrier on top of the trunk. He began paying more attention to them to notice where exactly they were going, watching their family give their goodbyes only for her to step through the pillar nearest her

'You have to be kidding me, a freaking pillar…' he thought mutinously. 'They CAN'T just use a door can they' Astrape's only reply was to giggle.

Following her was a family of redheads and a black haired boy, all of whom went through the same pillar. 'Well i guess that's our ticket, astrape' he drawled while walking towards the pillar, putting his book in his pocket as he went.

Going through the pillar was like going through a false door muffled by pure plack fog for just a moment, then being slightly blinded by the sudden surge of sunlight on the hidden platform. The train he saw was supposed to carry them was definitely an antique model, yet the dark red paint still looked as though it had just been applied. Walking toward the train he saw many magical families giving their goodbyes, such as the same family of redheads he saw before, a family a blondes, and many others. He got onto the express with little difficulty, only stopping once he found an empty compartment. He locked it with a quick _colloportus_ and pulled the same book from before out and became absorbed into it, not noticing anything happening outside of its pages for nearly an hour. After the first hour, though, he wished to stretch his legs slightly, and moved to leave the compartment. As he opened the door, he saw the same brown-haired girl from before, sitting with one of the redheads he saw before, the black haired kid, and a man in a ratty brown jacket who appeared to be napping. 'Right, first chance to make 'friends' like Alcar wanted' he thought as he knocked on their door and opened it.

"Hello?" the brown haired girl said curiously. "I'm afraid I don't know you, do you need one of us for something?" she asked wondering why someone would come into their compartment other than malfoy to brag, or the sweets cart lady.

"No, no I don't; I just wanted to thank you for your help, unknown though it was, on getting me to the train today. I had arrived early to the station but was unable to find the door to the platform, nothing i got was very explanatory in that regard. So I had decided to sit down and watch for others going through, and you all happened to be the ones to help me. So yea, thank you." he finished somewhat awkwardly, but kept his poise.

"I don't think you really need to thank us for that, but you're welcome anyways." the bespectacled boy said.

"I don't remember seeing you before, but you look a little old to be a first year, may i ask your name." the bushy haired teen said shyly.

"You are correct, i am not a first year. I'm a...transfer student is I guess what I am. I had tutors hired to teach me, but my guardian wished for me to make friends, and so enrolled me here." he said. "My name is Alexander, but i would prefer alex if you don't mind."

"Hello alex, I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger, this is Ron weasley," she said, pointing to the redhead in the room. "And this is harry, harry potter." the black haired boy looked distinctly uncomfortable at that moment 'understandable' alex thought 'I'm sure everyone and their mother stares at that damn scar, and famous though he may be, he was just a baby.' "Mister Potter, you don't need to worry about me fanboying over you. Unlike most sheep i understand that your mother was the true hero that night, and you were just another victim. Wizarding England has placed you on a pedestal you do not wish to be on, I can see that clearly, and I can assure you that I will not become a blushing fool in your presence." he chuckled. "Hell, I'm fairly famous for my own last name, you see my name is Alexander Polaris, the Lo-"

"BLOODY HELL!" Ron yelled. "You're the lord of the north! Your family's had wizards and witches as powerful as merlin!"

"Hush Ronald, we do not want to wake up mister lupin, now do we."

"How d'you know his name hermione?" ron asked.

"It's on his suitcase ronald." she chided. "But yes, you are the lord Polaris, I've read stories about your ancestors, they really were legends. Tell me, do you really live in a castle that's warded even better than hogwarts? Do you have a library there? Do you have any of your ancestors grimoires, those would be a treasure trove to look through! Do you-"

"Hermione!" both Ron and Harry said loudly, chuckling.

"Oh, err, sorry, I get carried away when books are involved usually." she was blushing yet chuckling herself at her eagerness.

"Well, umm, yes i do live in a heavily warded castle, we do have a library that's supposed even better than the one at Hogwarts, yes I do have the grimoires of my ancestors, though I haven't been able to look through but 2 so far as its mostly highly advanced magics. And yes, you do get carried away." Alex laughed. "Would you mind if I sat down with you all, it seems like good company here."

"Go ahead," all 3 began. "We could enjoy the company as well, plus I'm sure hermione wants to play 21 questions with you." Harry finished for them.

And so he sat, and began talking to the trio, learning about the school he was attending and the people he would be attending it with. He listened as Harry talked about how they all become friends over trolls and bathrooms. He listened and enjoyed himself for a good amount of time, but after a few hours of good company he began to notice a change in the air. He felt the train stop and looked outside, only for the lights in the train to go off seconds later. Alex was wary now, his sixth sense for danger was on high alert, and wand in hand, he was ready to defend his compartment-mates. The temperature suddenly began dropping rapidly around them, causing them to be able to see their breath, and frost began forming on the expresses windows. Alex had a sinking suspicion of what they were fighting, and dreaded being proven right, as he could not perform the charm that was most effective against them. He applied warming charms to all in the room as the cold had evolved from simply cold to absolutely frigid at this point.

Suddenly he heard the door to the compartment opening, and went to grab the handle to stop it, but upon touching the handle he felt his hand begin frosting over and freezing, and was forced to let go instantly. As the door opened he noticed a creature in a black cloak floating in the hallway, menacingly making its way towards them, so alex did the first thing that came to mind and fought against what he knew to be a dementor.

"_INCENDIO!" _he roared, still wishing to conceal his true skills unless necessary so he could actually make friends and not be feared by his own classmates. The flame spell struck with the force of a hurricane wind, forcing it to stop in place, and slowly began pushing the dementor back into the hall. Its cloak appeared to be magically resistant to the flames, but with sheer overwhelming power, Alex began to burn through it. His aura was becoming visible at this point, shocking both Ron and Hermione, although Harry was being too heavily affected by the dementor to pay attention to it. Eventually both ron and hermione fired their own flame spells to add to his, and together, they overpower the magical resilience of the dementor, and burned through its cloak, and then through the bony creature underneath the cloak. Mister lupin, who had been ready to fire off his patronus as soon as the creature opened the door, had also begun firing an incendio when he saw it was actually working against the dementor, albeit ineffectively. After nearly a minute of the standoff, the creature was nothing but ash, and alex used an _aguamenti_ to put out any leftover flame.

"So.. why the FUCK, was a dementor on a train full of schoolchildren." Alex was seething, a creature capable of sucking out the soul of its victims, that enjoyed doing so, and someone thought to put it on a train to a school?! It only showed Hermione's own shock and horror at the situation that she didn't correct him for his language.

"A very astute question, Mister Polaris." Lupin spoke up for the first time, alerting Ron and Hermione that he was actually awake, and upon turning, noticed he was up and moving as well. "I am assuming they were checking the train for Sirius Black, although why it chose to attack us i do not understand. Here Mister Potter, eat some chocolate, it will help you come back to yourself, some people are affected very badly by dementors and the dopamine boost chocolate provides honestly helps." Harry began eating the chocolate and starting coming back to himself, skin gaining color and life returning to his eyes.

"Did anyone hear the woman?" he asked quietly.

"What woman harry?" hermione responded concernedly.

"The woman that was screaming, as that...thing got close to me it was all I could hear, I thought I was about to faint if it got any closer, thanks for fighting it by the way." he explained, thanking his friends for fighting when he couldn't.

"No thanks are necessary Mister Potter, I assure you I detest dementors, as they are one of the few things i don't feel confident in facing alone, as I have yet to learn the patronus charm, and it's one of the only ways to fight them effectively."

"Alex, why do you keep calling harry by his last name." hermione asked.

"Because he has not given me permission to use his first name, Miss Granger, none of you have. It is improper etiquette to do so usually, and as I have formal training for taking up my lordship in the future, I tend to stick to last names until to avoid offence." upon hearing this, all 3 quickly gave their permission for him to use their first names.

"Harry, I am curious as to how you did not already know the answer to hermione's question. After all, the Potters are an ancient and noble house, and a part of the Sacred 28 founding houses that formed the Wizengamot. That means that upon your magical maturity you will be eligible to accept the lordship for your house, and if you do not do so then, you are expected to by the time you come of age" Harry's eyes grew large at this and he began spluttering.

"What do you mean by all this?! I'm a lord? What does that even mean!" he began banging his head on the table softly, wishing that he knew what was going on with his life NOW. Alex wasn't sure but he would've sworn he heard harry mutter something about 'just harry'.

"If you truly don't know any of this, then your magical guardian has done you a disservice, as most children begin learning this very early on in life. I will teach you what it means to be a Lord if you wish harry. Though it would just be in my spare time, as i do try to keep myself busy, what with an extensive exercise routine, study time, relaxation time, and actual class time."

"Please do, if this is something I need to know, then I've gotta learn it I guess." he said at the same time hermione said "can i join the lessons too, it sounds like a very interesting subject to learn."

"It is no trouble harry, and yes hermione, but again, it will just be in my spare time."

"You both have fun with that, bloody mental for taking on extra work if you ask me." Ron said, finishing in a mutter so as to try to stop hermione from hearing him diss schooling, but she still sent a glare his way that let him know he failed.

Though the young lord was speaking to the trio, in his head he was hosting a completely different conversation.

'So what the fuck Astrape, why would a dementor attack us.'

'_I do not know alex, but I would wager they felt the strength of those in the room and were overcome by hunger. You are the strongest power in the room from what i can feel, but the young Potter is a close second in power, with miss Granger following him. The wolf and the red haired one do not have as much power, but all of you together could have sent the soul sucker into a feeding frenzy.' _

'What do you mean 'the wolf' astrape?' Alex inquired.

'_The old one, lupin, he smells of both wolf and man.'_

'Wolf and man… a werewolf! But why is a werewolf on the train, maybe he's a teacher?' Alex questioned more to himself than to Astrape.

'_Maybe little one, but let's hope that he has somewhere safe for the moon, or the students may be in danger.'_

'There's also wolfsbane potion, Astrape. Remember it lets them keep their minds, im sure any potions teacher worth their salt can brew one, so he should be alright. Although with how backwards Magical England can be i'm surprised he is allowed to teach. Unless… maybe he's keeping it a secret. I doubt the headmaster wouldn't know but from the general populace… that makes much more sense.' he theorized and attempted to zone back into the conversation between the 3 students.

"I just hope they manage to catch black quickly, so the ministry will send these dreadful things back to azkaban." Hermione said.

"Maybe so, but dementors are just as dangerous to the civilian population as they are to escaped criminals hermione." Alex interjected. "If your minister hadn't cut the budget for your aurors so low, they would be able to conduct a proper manhunt instead of unleashing the equivalent of rabid dogs that tasted blood onto us all."

"He's right Hermione, merlin knows they're dangerous, considering just one nearly killed us." the lord scoffed at this.

"I would never die to something as mundane as a dementor, Ron. I could have put out much more power into my spell, but I was trying to not burn through the train car, as I was unsure what charms were protecting it."

All three looked slightly skeptical at this, but Hermione and Ron thought back to the aura they had seen and thought that maybe he was being truthful after all.

"Speaking of flame spells, that was very clever, I knew it was supposed to be nearly impossible to actually kill a dementor with normal spells because of their resistance, but the flames constantly fought the resistance and actually burned through it, I'm sure the ministry will be interested to know there's a way to kill that doesn't involve starving them of souls." Hermione said

"That was my line of thought as well, I just took a guess that i could overpower the resistance if nothing else worked, but i also thought that maybe the dementors keep it so cold around them because they dislike the heat."

Alex suddenly heard footsteps coming from down the hall, and looked out to see Lupin returning.

"Right everyone, I spoke with the conductor. Apparently the dementor was allowed onto the train to search for black, but it was definitely not supposed to attack anyone, it was only supposed to leave after a quick search. I need to go check on the other students now, but you should see me for your classes soon, it was nice sharing a compartment with you all." shrinking his trunk, he gave them all one last glance, looking at harry last, then nodded to himself and left.

"So, should we try to fix the door, or leave it as is." Harry asked, as the door frame had slightly melted under the onslaught of fire spells and refused to budge. Alex only started chuckling, which set off the rest of the group, and soon they were all outright laughing.

—-

The train managed to get to hogsmeade without anymore issues, though as Alex was getting out he was struck by a thought.

"Should I go with you guys or go with the first years? I am technically a third year but i haven't been sorted yet or anything so I don't really know."

It was hermione that answered his question after a moment of thought, "I would say go with the first years, but that might just be because the view of the castle from the boats, for the first time, is such a magnificent view." she gushed, and harry quickly agreed with her.

"Well, first years it is, I suppose I'll talk to you all later?" alex asked hopefully, he was enjoying hanging around them, and hoped to get to know them better.

"Yea mate, just find us after you're sorted, you'll be a gryff for sure with the way you fought that dementor." Ron praised, and if alex hadn't had enough practice in occlumency to keep his calm, he might have blushed.

"I don't know, i bet he'd make a good ravenclaw as well, he certainly seems very smart." Hermione teased.

"Well whichever house he's in, he'll still have us to help him out, right guys." Harry interjected, and the other two quickly agreed.

"Thank you all, I've gotta admit, when my guardian told me about his enrolling me here, I was highly pissed off, but it already seems like his idea had merit after all, I think I'll enjoy making some friends." Alex said his goodbyes to the group and went to meet up with the first years being led to a bunch of boats by a behemoth of a man in a long fur coat.

He hopped in the boat with the giant himself, who introduced himself as Hagrid upon Alex's asking him, and together they set off to Hogwarts. Coming around a cliff face they came into view of a magnificent castle, nearly rivalling Polairix in beauty. He could see towers and battlements cutting in the sky, he could see lights shining from the central hall enhancing the shadows playing on the towers, and was enthralled for a few moments, coming out of his daze when Hagrid shouted at the first years to duck their heads, though he was pretty sure hagrid was the only one that really needed to watch his head. Going into the cave covered by an ivy curtain, they wound up in an underground boat dock, and with Hagrid helping him out of the boat, he got onto the dry dock fairly gracefully. After everyone dismounted from their their respective dinghies, Hagrid led them up a set of stairs where they met up with a stern-looking old woman. She gave Alex a slightly confused glance but other than that showed no signs of her countenance changing anytime soon. She proceeded to give a speech about how your house is your family or some such, Alex was looking at his surroundings and fellow students more than he was paying attention to the speech, but he got the gist of it. She directed the first years onward but stopped beside Alex who was at the back to speak to him for a moment.

"I am assuming you are the transfer student the headmaster informed the staff about." she asked in a heavy scottish lilt

"You assumed correctly, ma'am."

"It is highly irregular for a student to transfer schools once their magical education has begun, but I am assured that you shall be able to perform up to the standards of your year."

"To be honest, I could probably perform better in higher years just as well as third year, but I was sent here to make friends so my guardian insured I was placed with my own age group."

"Is that an American accent i hear?"

"Yes i lived in America until I was 7, or nearly 7, then my guardian found me and took me to my current home. My accent still slips back through at times."

"Well, I hope you find what you came for at Hogwarts, Mister Polaris. I wish you a good evening, now if you will excuse me, I don't wish to miss too much of the sorting." she sounded almost excited near the end, though her facial expression didn't waver. Alex allowed her to lead him into the great hall, where the sorting of the first years was just beginning. After waiting for a good while, when the strange hat that was sorting them got to the Ps, he began to zone back into what was going on. Hearing his name called, he stepped up to the rickety stool and sat down. The first thing the hat heard was his last thought of 'i really hope they wash this thing.'

'_I can assure you that i stay perfectly clean, there are charms on me for that.'_ the hat said, almost sounding offended.

'If you say so.'

'_Interesting...it isn't often I get to sort a student older than 11.'_

'Yea i figured that, past 11 and they'd all realize that they could contain all of the founders ideals in themselves, instead of just the one of the house they go into.'

'_It isn't that they don't contain the ideals, it is which ideal is most prevalent in their minds, which one takes up the most space in their snotty little heads.'_

'Harsh much?'

'_You try sorting thousands of eleven year olds and not getting a little annoyed at how absolutely dull some of them are.'_

'Fair enough i suppose. Does it get lonely only being brought out once a year to talk to some kids?'

'_I am capable of speech whenever I wish, I am sentient. Most of the time I am left with the headmaster in his office, able to converse with him or anyone that visits him.'_

'Would you like me to visit you for conversation? If the founders truly created you, I'm sure you're a font of knowledge, not to mention all the history you've lived through since then.'

'_I...would like that, conversation does become scarce at times. I shall tell the headmaster to call you up sometime in the next week to set up an official schedule, now let's get through your sorting shall we, other brats to look through and all that.'_

'Alright.'

'_Very interesting… you are a seeker of knowledge, eagerly devouring your ancestor's learnings, but it is in an attempt to catch up to them, to not disappoint those who came before you. You show courage under fire, as the incident on the train shows...honestly, i don't know what that foolish minister was thinking, putting them on a schoolground…'_

'You got me there, I think he's an idiot for it too. Let's just hope no one else gets attacked before black is caught.'

'_Quite right, you are also loyal to those you trust, but those people are few and far between at the moment. You show a great ambition in wishing to become a name remembered, even amongst your many ancestor's legacies. You would do well in any house… although I must admit at the moment that i think slytherin will be a good choice for you. Your ambition is great, yet it is also a true ambition, not like most fools currently in the house, content to ride on their ancestor's coattails and bring ruin upon the magical world.'_

'You are speaking about the blood purists i assume. I agree, they aren't the smartest bunch, if no new blood comes into the magical world, then they will inbreed themselves to death in a few centuries, and then magical britain shall be no more.'

'_At least some are capable of understanding, from your memories i see the north is much different in the way it handles things, and I wish that things could be so simple here as well.'_

'As an island, we are capable of controlling who comes onto the island. That is why things are so different for us. Because my ancestors managed to hide the island from the world, we don't have to abide by that foolish statute of secrecy. We take in any in-the-know muggles, such as parents and siblings, or those improperly memory charmed, or squibs, along with magical blood. As such, we have managed to become much more advanced over the centuries than the rest of the magical world. We never attempted to split off our world, we try to keep it as involved as possible so there is little fear coming from either side about the other. Not to mention our police force manages is highly capable, and keeps incidents both magical and non-magical to a minimum.'

'_If only the rest of the world could co-exist in such a way… but I digress, I still say that you would do well in slytherin, possibly even change some of the bias both in and against the house. Salazar would be disappointed, both by what his house has become, and by what others make his house and name out to be. Salazar never hated muggleborns, and he only hated Muggles because he feared what would happen to his students and family should they find the school. Would you be willing to change what his legacy has become, Lord Polaris? It would not be easy, but I feel you, over anyone, may truly be capable of saving his house from desolation.'_

'You're the sorting hat, my job here is to let you sort me. But I would endeavor to aid you if you did put me in slytherin.'

'_Then that is where you shall go, to save his house and legacy. You shall bring great change to this school, and it will be highly entertaining for me to witness it.'_

"**SLYTHERIN!" **the hat shouted, louder than any other sorting he had done so far. Alex only removed the hat from his head and went to find his fellow housemates, stopping for a moment to smile and wave at Harry, Ron, and Hermione, who were watching him, stunned at which house he had found himself in. Harry was the first to wave back, followed by Hermione. When he noticed that they waved, Ron gave a half-hearted wave as well.

Alex sat at the edge of the bench, away from the groups, content to analyze his new roommates for now. He saw a blond boy shadowed by what alex would've guessed to be hired muscle if they weren't children, across from them was a dark-haired girl who looked eerily similar to what a pug's face would look like as a human, and next to her was another bodyguard looking child, this one female. Further down the benches he saw a blonde and black haired female duo sitting together, and across from them was a dark skinned boy. Caught up in his inspection of his house, he didn't notice the blond boy until he sat down across from him and cleared his throat to get his attention.

"You, are you really a Polaris, or are you just a mudblood with the same name?" the brat asked, the slur causing Alex's eye to slightly twitch.

"Does it matter? Also it is considered rude in some circles to come barging over here demanding things without even introducing yourself. Did you not have any lessons in manners?" Alex asked condescendingly, causing the blond kids face to redden slightly.

"My apologies, my name is Draco, Draco malfoy. Now, again, are you really related to the house of the north star or are you not?"

"If it matters that much to you, Mister Malfoy, yes I am." he said as he lifted up his heir ring to show his status as future lord. The brats eyes remained glued to the ring for a few seconds before shooting back up to meet the lords gaze, which remained stony.

"Incredible, such a famous house sorted into slytherin, it's only right, it just proves how great we are compared to the trash the rest of this school produces." he arrogantly stated, which caused alex to groan internally. 'The hat was right, if the Malfoy brat is the regular in slytherin, this is gonna be a pain to change.' Alex thought sullenly, dreading the labor ahead of him.

"So Mister Polaris, what is your view on the mudbloods and blood traitors polluting the rest of the school with their filth. I think it's a shame, the things Dumbledore has done to this school, my father's very nearly gotten rid of him multiple times, but he just barely manages to get the position back every time. The sooner the old man goes into his 'next great adventure' the better, if you ask me."

"I don't share the views on blood you all do, if that is what you mean, Mister Malfoy. I believe that blood is blood, and we all bleed red, no matter what slur you wish to call someone. It is talent that matters, or should matter, in the world Mister Malfoy, and that is what is forgotten in the pursuit of hatred many purebloods have undertaken. In the north, blood purity means nothing. We don't even use the words pureblood, half-blood, or muggleborn; instead we say magical or non-magical, and even then the prejudice is at a minimum. I won't say there is none, as that would be a lie, but existing on an island where we can choose who gains entry gives us much control over bigotry." throughout his mini-speech, the smile that was on Draco's face fell further and further, ending in a scowl that could curdle milk.

"Great… another blood traitor going to ruin the reputation of your house. Do the world a favor and die off before you can drag your name through too much **mud**." Draco said as got got up and stomped back to his previous seat, speaking quickly and pointing at alex. Soon, the entire group he had seen earlier was staring at him, the bodyguards and pug-face joining Draco in their glares, but the duo of girls and the dark skinned boys faces remaining carefully blank, and the young Polaris took note of that.

He heard the headmaster's finishing remarks and suddenly the feast appeared in front of them. The 3 muscle heads started gorging themselves instantly, while the rest of the year group alex had surrounded himself with ate with more civility. All too soon the feast was over, and alex found himself making his way down to the dungeons at the back of the pack of slytherins. Suddenly he felt someone sticking a note in his robe pocket, and waited a few seconds to not alert anyone something had happened, then reached into his pocket and opened the note, which read

_Malfoy planning confrontation in common room, got older students to help, watch yourself newbie_

-DG

Much more tense, the lord continued making his way to the door to slytherin house, ready to draw one of his wands at a moments' notice; He was the last one heading into the common room because he had slowed himself down on purpose, so that no one could sneak up behind him. Entering the common room he saw malfoy off in a corner, and there were indeed 3 older students with him, all of the quartets eyes swinging to him as he entered, even though their head of house, a greasy haired individual, had already begun a welcome speech.

"Welcome to slytherin house," the man drawled. "Here you will be expected to comport yourselves with dignity, and unity, if only as a front. The rest of Hogwarts will not be accommodating to you because of the house you have found yourself in. You will be ridiculed by many, called dark or evil simply because of the color you wear, so you WILL show a united front to the rest of the school. Any problems you have will one another, will be sorted out here, behind the privacy of our walls." he seemed to eye Draco as he said this, which keyed Alex into the fact he was already aware of what was being planned. 'What a greasy prick, wonder if he's a blood purist too, or if he just encourages this kind of shit.'

'_Watch yourself here little one, we have found ourselves in a snake den, and we may need to act, or react in this case, accordingly.'_

'I know Astrape, I know… I might need to kick someone's ass tonight. I really do blame that hat for this.'

The greasy man swivelled and walked back through the common room door, leaving the house to its own devices, which incited draco to begin his idea of a confrontation.

"And here's the blood traitor now, boys. Doesn't look like much, does he. Already showing himself to be a disappointment to his name, maybe we should just put him in his place now, let him know who stands on top here." the 3 older students drew their wands with draco, leering at Alex, whose face was still blank, but a spark of anger showing in his eyes from the disappointment comment. Abruptly, Alex began smiling a malicious, vicious grin, letting the 4 know he wasn't intimidated, and drew his cherry wand.

"Anytime you feel ready, little dragon, I'll put you in your place," Alex started "you are right about one thing, we need to know who stands on top in slytherin house, because you all are certain you own the snake pit. But a true serpent has been unleashed into your den, a serpent king, a basilisk among garden snakes. But… if you truly want to try me, then cast a spell, and I shall react accordingly." as he was speaking, his aura began flaring violently, causing a wind to stir in the windless area, and the smell of ozone filled the air as lightning crackled around his form. Yet still, he was still smiling nastily, ready in an instant to put down a threat.

Draco, in a moment of sheer stupidity, shouted out "_DEPULSO"_ attempting to send Alex flying into the wall, but Alex simply sidestepped the spell and sent back a chain of his own, "_ Stupify; Aguamenti; Glacius!"_ which first stunned him, then covered him in water, then froze the ground around him, and Malfoy himself, in a block of ice, aided by his drenched clothing.

Alex simply watched the 3 older students like a predator circling prey, almost daring them to make a move. When it appeared they were too frightened to do so, he said "Might want to get your boss somewhere warm, otherwise he'll get hypothermia, and merlin forbid you make me happy and leave him there." he just stowed his wand and walked past them to find his dorm, being watched by everyone in the common room, but 3 people watched him more intensely than the others.

—-

Upon finding the empty dorm he assumed was his, as all the others were taken at this point, he immediately reached into his pocket and pulled out a shrunken trunk, which he then proceeded to use a silent _engorgio _on, causing to to grow to its original size. He then opened the trunk, and climbed into it, closing the lid on top of him, only to open it back long enough to put up an alert ward to let him know if anyone came into his room.

Inside the trunk, there was a ladder leading down into a coat room, where he took off his outer clothes and was left in a t-shirt and pants. Leaving the small room, he opened the door to reveal a lounging room and kitchen/ dining room combo, and a hallway leading to the bedrooms and bathrooms.

'Like I said before Astrape, expanded trunks are the BEST!' he thought, stretching out on a blue couch and relaxing for the first time since the dementor attack.

=======================flashback========================

**July 28th, 1993 **

**Diagon alley**

Right, first up on the list, we need to go clothes shopping Astrape, cause i only have like two pairs of robes, and I'd like at least one for every weekday, even if they all have to be black…'he grumbled. Walking into Madam Malkins, he was accosted by an elderly lady asking him whether he needed to be fitted or if he knew his measurements. Replying in the negative, he was led to a side area where she summoned a tape measure from a table and levitated it until the cord was wrapped around him. After a few minutes of this routine, she had the measurements written on a dicta-quill and animated a sewing kit to begin making his custom robes he requested, robes of acromantula silk, a fine material, very soft and comfortable, but also fairly expensive. Being informed that his order would take about an hour to complete, he decided to go buy his school trunk and books while he waited. As he began looking for a shop to buy his trunk he came up clueless, he had no idea where they were sold, so he just decided to wander until he found the place. After a while of wandering he wound up in knockturn alley of all places, at a store called Borgin and Burkes which appeared to be an antique store of sorts, albeit a darker antique store. Inside he noticed an array of questionable artifacts, and, choosing to ignore them went straight up to the store owner and asked after trunks.

"We don't have school trunks here kid, we only have expanded trunks in stock, might want to head to Quality Quidditch, I remember them having trunks there, now scram." the man said brusquely, trying to get the kid out of his shop.

"Wait, hold on, what's an expanded trunk?" Alex inquired.

"Trunks with expansion charms on them to make them bigger, we have library trunks, apartment trunks, closet trunks, and duelling trunks in stock at the moment. We are unfortunately out of storage trunks as they are our hottest sellers, but we should have more stock next month. Library trunks are fairly self explanatory, it's a large room full of bookshelves that can be turned into a personal library you can carry on your person. The apartment trunks are our second hottest sellers, we only have 2 in stock at the moment; one is a 3 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment with a lounge area and a kitchen dining room combination, and the other is a deluxe trunk with 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a kitchen and dining room, a sitting room, a duelling arena to practice, and a small pool. Closet trunks are the smallest expanded trunks we have, they are just large walk-in closets. Duelling trunks are large training areas, and we are kind enough to include 3 training dummies for practice with a duelling trunk."

Alex's eyes kept growing larger and larger at what he was hearing, and upon hearing what they all did, a gleam entered his eyes. 'They have freaking TARDIS trunks, I love magic.' he thought. "I'll take a library trunk, the 3 bedroom apartment trunk, a closet trunk, and a duelling trunk, please." he said seriously.

The man only glanced at him before saying "quit playing around kid, these trunks are expensive, go find your parents and get out of here."

"I can pay for myself thank you, now how much are they."

"The apartment trunk is 1,500 galleons, the duelling trunk is 1,000, the library trunk is 750 galleons, and the closet trunk is 250. That totals up to 3,500 galleons, which, as I said, is too much for a BRAT like you, so get out of here kid." said kid only pulled a pouch off of his belt and said 3,500 galleons, causing a spew of gold to come flying out of it, landing on the counter the man was leaning on. After streaming for a few minutes, the gold rain finally cut out, leaving the man gaping at the coin pile on his groaning counter. "I'll fetch your trunks right away, sir!" the man sputtered, and less than 5 minutes later, alex had a slew of trunks on his person, and the knowledge of how to use them.

He then decided to go to flourish and blotts to fetch his books for the year, although he'd read through the ones worth anything years ago. Grabbing the basic books he needed, he also decided to grab a few books to read for pleasure, 'might as well start filling up that library trunk' he thought. After he was done book shopping he decided to go get the rest of his basic supplies, like quills and cauldrons, then, because he still had a few minutes before he needed to go collect his clothes, he decided to have a snack at fortescue's ice cream.

He decided to sit at a booth outside to enjoy the rare sunny day, and a middle aged man with salt and pepper colored hair levitated a menu to him while talking to another, older gentleman. He decided on a normal hot fudge sundae, as he wasn't too sure about trying the flavour changing ice creams yet. After digging in, he waved to the owner, and laid some gold on the table while he was watching, and left the store to grab his clothes. But, as he was leaving, another girl was walking in. she was older than him, alex noticed, and she had a vibrant pink colored hair that was relatively short and spiky. As she was walking past him, she stumbled, and alex reached out and caught her. Looking up at him, her hair turned a darker red for a moment, before switching back to pink, which caused alex's eyes to widen slightly.

"A metamorphmagus…" he stated, though it sounded like a question.

"Yea… wotcher mate, thanks for the save!" the girl said. "My name's Tonks, sorry about that, by the way, I'm a total klutz sometimes, though usually I end up on my face not in someone's arms. Thanks again for the catch…" tonks just kept on rambling, until alex started chuckling, which made her hair turn a very dark red for a moment.

"Oi, are you laughing at me!"

"Sorry, you were rambling, I just couldn't help it, I didn't mean to offend you, my name's Alexander, but i prefer Alex if you please."

She watched him for a moment, then started smiling as well, then said "Yea i do have a bad habit of going off on tangents, heheh… it's alright i guess. So alex, what brings you here?"

"School shopping for Hogwarts, what about you."

"I'm just here to grab a snack before I head into training, I'm working towards being an auror, ya know."

"Impressive, not my career choice at the moment, but if you're successful at it, it only shows your determination. And I bet your skills at shifting would come in handy, much more than a glamour or polyjuice."

"Yea thats what Amelia said when she accepted me, but it's hard at times cause of my clumsiness…"she sighed, before standing up from where they were sitting and brushing herself off.

"Well I've been idling long enough, I should get going, it was nice meeting you alex, be sure to say hi if you ever see me, and I'll do the same!" she smiled and waved, before walking off.

Alex just watched her for a moment, before shaking his head and smiling, and striking off towards Madam Malkins. Walking in he saw a bag labelled with his name sitting on the counter, and a bored sales lady reading a magazine next to it. He went up and paid for his things, and walked back out with little fuss.

'Last stop astrape, magical menagerie, i need a mail owl cause i don't think you'll want to carry my letters now will you?' he asked playfully.

'_Try to use me as a glorified mail owl and I will drop your letters in the ocean little one…_' Astrape retorted.

Walking into the pet store many animals looked at him and started screeching, feeling the presence of the predator contained in tattoo form. Alex just calmly looked around until he found an owl that stayed placid, and found what he was looking for in a _tytus alba_, a barn owl, and a fairly large one at that. With all necessities purchased, Alex walked into the alley next to the leaky cauldron, and apparated back to Polairix.

================flashback over================

After a short nap, Alex was woken up by his ward alerting him to a presence outside his door. Quickly climbing out of his trunk, he opened his door to find one of the duo of girls from the great hall blankly staring at him. After a moment, he invited her into his room. She sat down in a nearby chair and continued staring at him as he sat on his trunk.

"Sooo, you gonna talk or we just gonna have a staring contest, because while i like those, there are things I'd rather be doing with my time." Alex deadpanned.

"I'll get right into the thick of it, I want you to teach me how to fight like that, my friends too." she said seriously.

"And why in the hell would I do that?"

"Because you owe me, I'm the DG that gave you your warning."

"What you call a confrontation, I call putting my lessers in line. That was nothing and you know it, I didn't even break a sweat."

"You're right, but i still warned you, so you owe me."

"I really don't but sure, I'll train you, but know that I will be teaching Harry Potter and Hermione Granger Noble house etiquette at the same time, by which I mean my free time."

Her eyes widened slightly at this, then went back to the blank face she had before 'she must be an occlumens, I recognize that blank face…' he thought.

"I don't have a problem with this, neither will my friends, they'll be surprised sure, but they will be fine. But we will need to keep this a secret, so the rest of the house doesn't find out we're hanging out with potter and his lot." she stated.

"Sure, why not. I don't care if they find out either way though. It'll just give me another opportunity to show that I refuse to allow slytherin to continue as it has been."

"What do you mean by that?" DG asked.

"I mean… that slytherin has been ruled by a cycle of hatred both from the other houses, and from within itself against others, for far too long. I intend to change that. There is no such thing as blood purity, as I stated earlier, we all bleed red in the end. Even non-magicals bleed red just the same. Their prejudice has no basis, and I intend to show them that, as many times as it takes for it to sink in."

"That is...ambitious. I guess I know why the hat put you here." she got up to leave but at the door she turned for a moment to say. "I'm Daphne Greengrass by the way. I'm not sure, but I think getting to know you will be very interesting." she smirked and shut the door on her way out.

'How troublesome, first day in and already i'm teaching 5 people.' he groaned and collapsed on his bed, lamenting his lost free time. After sulking for a few more minutes to Astrape's amusement, he climbed back into his apartment trunk and got ready for bed.

—-

Climbing out of his trunk the next morning, he noticed a note on his bedside table, which read:

_Please meet in my office after your classes today, it is about our mutual floppy friend. The password will be chocoballs. I await your arrival._

_ Headmaster Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore 'What a mouthful of a name' _Astrape thought.

'Agreed, I'm assuming this is about the hat and I scheduling a visiting time.'

'_A logical deduction, considering he practically said that in the note…' _

'It's too early for the attitude Astrape, at least let me eat breakfast before you start in.' he mock-complained.

'_Oh alright, I'll let you wake up before i overwhelm you with my genius wordplay.' _she got out before giggling, which broke her haughty persona.

Making his way to the slytherin table in the great hall, he met the headmasters gaze for a moment and nodded to show he had read the note, then sat where he was yesterday at the edge of the table. To his surprise, though, after a short period of time, Daphne and her 2 friends joined him, the boy sitting on his side of the table and the two girls sitting across from them. Alex raised an eyebrow at Daphne, as though inquiring about what was going on.

"My friends wanted to meet their new teacher." she said with the barest hint of a grin showing.

"My name is Blaise Zabini. We've all heard about you, the new Heir Polaris. Already making waves in slytherin." the dark skinned boy said, smacking Alex's back while chuckling. "I have to admit, while I don't know how qualified you actually are to help us defend ourselves against the rest of the purists, but the way you put Malfoy down and frightened those older guys last night was something else."

"I agree with Blaise there, that aura was INTENSE. I was worried you were gonna come after someone else after you were done scaring them. My name's Tracey Davis, call me Tracey, or Trace, that's what Daph does." the black haired girl said. "So when's our first lesson gonna be, professor." Tracey teased.

"Probably saturday, I can manage my homework after classes easily enough, as I know most of it, I will admit to not knowing much goblin history, or history of magic, as that ghost likes to teach it. Astrology is also a weak point of mine at the moment, and I'm always shit at mathematics, arithmancy included. But I can manage my other classes easily enough. Actually I have a proposition, you all help me when I need help with some homework, and it'll free up more time for me to teach you defense and teach Harry and Hermione etiquette."

After a moment of silent debate, Daphne's blonde head bobbed up and down, acquiescing to his request. "I'm sure Granger would be willing to help you too, if you're willing to sit through an entire debate about what you did wrong, that is." she added.

"Good idea, I'll ask her about it Saturday, I'll also need to tell them about when the first class is gonna be."

Finishing his food, he bid farewell to his new acquaintances and set off for his first class, transfiguration. Throughout the day, the only class to truly catch his interest was defense against the dark arts, because Professor Lupin had taken a different approach to the class in teaching them how to defend against dark creatures instead of dark magic. He already knew everything being taught in charms, transfiguration, and ancient runes, so he just went through the motions in those classes, thinking about what he was going to teach his own students. He hated arithmancy as he hated anything to do with maths. He was adequate in potions, but nothing special, so he had to focus to make a proper potion. By time for his meeting with Dumbledore, Alex was bored, wanting something interesting to happen, and hoping the meeting would accomplish that.

He walked up to the gargoyle and repeated the password from the note, and the gargoyle swung to the side revealing a staircase. He heard a voice from inside call out, "Enter." it said. He climbed the stairs which revealed a large office with the headmaster sitting behind a table sized desk, eyes twinkling away at Alex.

"Hello Alex, I assume you know why you're here. Our friend was very insistent i set up a meeting time. He actually threatened to constantly sing opera in my office if I didn't allow this, which would lose its novelty very quickly." he said with a chuckle. "I would allow you to visit on weekends if you wish to do so, I can have a house elf deliver you the passwords to my door as they change, as I did this time. I would ask that you mind yourself here, as many things are either fragile or do not belong to you. Would you be able to abide by those rules?"

"I can headmaster, I would be free on Sundays to visit, the time may vary depending on how busy my day is, but I'm sure I can spare an hour to converse then. And yes, I will abide by your rules, this is your office and I wouldn't wish to offend you, after all."

"Splendid, the meeting time is set, do you hear that flopsy! No need to serenade me."

"_Call me flopsy again, and i may serenade you anyways, Albus"_ the hat said, out loud this time.

"Hello hat, how is your day going?" Alex inquired politely.

"Fairly well, although dust and i don't mix well."

"Quite," albus began. "Whilst I have you here, Mister Polaris, I must ask what happened in the slytherin dorm room last night. I felt a large amount of magic building up from my office that registers to your signature, and Mister Malfoy was checked into the infirmary by some older students who said that you attacked him."

"The blood purists of the house disagreed with the fact that the House of Polaris stands with Muggles and muggleborns and half-bloods, even half-breeds over the nonsense of Pureblood superiority. Mister Malfoy thought to engineer a confrontation, and gathered some older students to aid him. I was not as simple a prey as they thought I would be, and Mister Malfoy, as the instigator, was unfortunate enough to figure that out. Unless he attacks me again, I am content to let things be."

"Unfortunately, I cannot let things be as they stand. You have attacked a student, and while no harm was done, that may not be the case next time. You should have gone and gotten a teacher to defuse the sit-"

"Professor snape was the only teacher I could have gone to for help, and he was already aware of the confrontation, allowed it to happen even."

"What makes you think that, my boy?"

"He spoke about how problems within slytherin would be sorted out inside slytherin house instead of spilling into the Hogwarts halls. He then proceeded to give Malfoy a significant look, one that, if you were there, you would not be able to mistake as him being unaware of the incoming assault on my person."

"I shall speak to severus about this, and this once I will not punish you, but next time, fetch a teacher please, i would rather not have to deal with injured students."

"That depends on them headmaster, I will defend myself, and if they escalate, I will as well."

"It is not ideal, but I suppose it is all I can ask for at the moment." Albus sighed and sagged in his chair for a moment before smiling and saying "That is all I wished to speak to you about, you may leave now my boy, but, I do hope you don't mind if i join you for a few of your meetings with hat, he is an excellent conversationalist."

"Thank you Professor Dumbledore, and I'm sure more company would be great, I'm willing to bet you have a number of great stories to share as well."

Alex waved to Dumbledore as he descended the steps, leaving the headmaster to converse with the hat. Going to the great hall, he decided to sit with his gryffindor friends tonight, and tell them about the first lesson's date.

Sitting at the gryffindor table drew many eyes, even more looking because it was a slytherin sitting next to the golden trio calmly.

"Hello Harry, Hermione, Ron. Sorry I haven't spoken to you all yet today, been a little busy planning for lessons this weekend. By the way, the first lesson is Saturday, I'm planning for just after lunch, and at the same time I am teaching you two etiquette, I'll also be teaching a few acquaintances I've made in slytherin how to better defend themselves. After a confrontation in the common room with a certain entitled blond brat and some lackeys of his, they decided they wanted to learn from me." Ron, who had been wary of Alex because he was sorted into slytherin, brightened at this.

"You went off on the ponce the first day?! What'd you do, c'mon tell me!"

"I stunned him and froze him in a block of ice after he shot a _depulso_ at me."

"You got one up on Malfoy the first day? I'm impressed, but watch out cause I'm sure he'll just try harder to get you now." Harry gave his input.

Hermione, conflicted about whether to scold him or congratulate him, because malfoy really was a prick, nodded at this. "Yes, Malfoy isn't the type to stop when he's been beaten, he will try again, you really should have just gotten a teacher to help you, but i guess if they cornered you in the common room you didn't have much of a chance to do that."

"I doubt his lackeys will be trying again, I think I frightened them so badly they streaked their trousers. Turns out they didn't expect me to have enough magical power to form an aura."

Hermione looked slightly disgusted at this information, but Harry and Ron laughed.

"Either way mate, good job."

Hermione chose this moment to ask, "Who are these acquaintances you spoke of? I don't know many people from slytherin, but there's only so many i can imagine being willing to study with us."

"Daphne Greengrass, Tracey Davis, and Blaise Zabini." all 3 of the trio gaped at this.

"The bloody ice queen wants to study with you lot?!" Ron blurted.

"I don't know about ice queen, she just practices occlumency, i do the same thing, I just allow my emotions to bleed through more most of the time than she does." Alex said.

"I've read about occlumency, it's the art of mind defense, isn't it?"

"There's more to it than that, but it can defend against legilimency, yes. It can also offer a near eidetic memory if you keep them sorted in your mindscape. And it can help school your emotions into a blank face, such as daphne does. Gives you a hell of an advantage in card games too." he chuckled.

"Mister Polaris, return to your house table, where you should be seated right now." Professor snape said silkily, having walked silently over to them.

"Why, professor? There's no rule against sitting at other house tables outside of the entrance feast and leaving feast, and tonight is neither."

Snape just gritted his teeth at this and began walking away, as Albus smiled from his spot at the head table and muttered "10 points to slytherin for inter-house unity."

Conversation ran out after awhile, and the last few minutes of dinner was spent in comfortable silence for the quartet. Afterwards, alex said his goodbyes and went back to the dungeons, to his dorm room, and to his apartment trunk, where he said goodnight to Astrape and fell asleep very quickly.

—-

AN: hope you all enjoyed chapter 2, next chapter will be up when i feel its done, as i dont like setting myself a schedule. See you all next chapter.


	3. Chapter 3: Nightmare

Defiance of Fate: chapter 3

Nightmare

I do not own the wonderful world of Harry Potter, only any OCs I introduce.

If you wanna hate, pls only constructive criticism.

"_I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."_

— **Nelson Mandela**

**September 3rd, 1993**

Before dawn, Alex woke up and went through his morning routine without much fuss. Once dressed in workout clothes, he decided to begin his exercise routine he had kept up at Polairix at Hogwarts, as he had given himself a few days to settle in and didn't want to get more lethargic than he already was. Running across the side of the lake facing hogwarts felt fantastic to alex this morning, the cold air blowing around him and keeping him from overheating. After his run he got out his duelling trunk and went through some basic spell chains before switching to speed casting, then switched again to accuracy training by having children's level snitches flying around for him to hit. After awhile, he decided to switch to his wandless magic, as he didn't want to become dependent on a wand, because no matter how easy it made magic, it was only a handicap to the truly strong in the long run.

He started by casting basic wandless spells, then advanced magics, such as transfiguration on objects he scattered about the room. After awhile he decided to head back outside his trunk and work on his elemental magic Astrape had been teaching him. He first appeared to just be standing in the grass at the edge of the forbidden forest, but then the wind started picking up around him. A gentle breeze grew into a great gust which then again grew into a vicious gale, blowing large branches around in the trees around him as though they were little more than twigs, when the wind reached its pinnacle, Alexander appeared to be standing in the eye of a tornado, leaves and dirt and sticks caught in the tempest. Methodically, he then calmed the windstorm he had created, raising a dome of rock to shield him from falling debris, then releasing the dome after he had moved. Moving closer to the lake, he put his bare feet into the water after casting warming charms to insure he didn't freeze, and began created small waves, twisting and turning and created a small waterspout directly in front of him, which he then forced to do a full loop around him then lower itself back into the water.

After a small amount of time longer, and a good deal more exhausted than he had been all week, he reentered his apartment trunk for a shower and put on fresh clothes. Making his way to breakfast, he noticed a certain blond prick had an arm in a cast this morning.

"Hey Malfoy, what the hell happened to you?" the young elemental asked. Draco flinched and looked around wildly to make sure the young Polaris wasn't about to attack him, then calmed down visibly and spoke, gesturing with his non injured arm though alex noticed him moving it much more than he should be if it was that bad of an injury.

"I was attacked by a hippogriff during that fat oaf's lesson yesterday! It nearly killed me! That beast needs to be put down for the safety of the students here, as a matter of fact, I wrote my father a letter last night telling him about this atrocity. He should be speaking with the minister today about arranging an execution."

'Bribery gets you everywhere i suppose.' he thought but said aloud. "Well you have fun with that, as far as I'm aware, hippogriffs only attack those that offend them in some way, so you must've done something to it. Although I will agree that a hippogriff should be a higher years lesson plan than a third year level, maybe a 5th year…" pondering that, he left Malfoy to his own devices.

He chose to sit at the slytherin table for breakfast, and though his trio of apprentices waved, they stayed among themselves this time, which suited Alex as he was perfectly fine with the relative silence around him. Once again he coasted through his classes of the day with no trouble, even dozing during on of binns' rebellion lectures where he went on and on in the same dry tone, paying no attention to his class whatsoever. Dinner was another boring affair, the only excitement of the day happening when he entered the slytherin common room and suddenly half the eyes were on him warily, remembering his performance yesterday, yet no one pestered him as he went to his room. Daphne even went so far as to wave at him from the corner she was sharing with Tracey. Once he got to his room, he dove into his library trunk long enough to grab a book to read for a bit, then switched into his apartment trunk and read until he fell asleep.

—-

**September 4th, 1993**

Waking up today, instead of lazing about for a bit as was his usual routine, Alex chose to get ready for his tutoring lessons today and got his morning workout done with quickly, heading back inside for a shower as the sun was beginning to rise above the horizon. After his morning routine, he decided to work on his homework while eating breakfast, he sat at the gryffindor table, but was joined by Daphne and Tracey, who said that Blaise would also be joining them when he arrived. Many students in the hall were watching gryffindor's table now, as 4 known slytherins had willingly sat in the lion's den. A few older students were watching them warily, but the golden trio had many friends in their house, and that alone allayed the wariness of most lions.

"So when do we start our lessons, professor?" Daphne teased.

"Probably after lunch, same time for you guys Harry, Hermione. Let's head out by the Lake for the lesson, it's actually sunny today, that doesn't happen often around here."

"By the lake after lunch, got it." hermione began, then looked conflicted for a moment before saying, "Could we, Harry and I that is, learn defense too if we finish with lessons quickly enough."

Alex pondered for a moment, then replied. "I don't see the harm in it, if nothing else you can watch what I teach them and just repeat it for yourself later in the day."

"Thank you, I have a feeling that those lessons could come in handy, Harry here has a knack for finding trouble." she bumped shoulders with him as she poked fun at him.

"I don't go looking for trouble you know, trouble just finds me."

"Isn't that the truth, I've started to dub your luck Potter's Law, harry." Hermione got out around giggles.

"Potter's Law?"

"I think she's referring to Murphy's Law, which states that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, but she's adapted it to fit you." Alex elaborated.

"Exactly so." the bushy haired teen confirmed, nodding seriously before breaking back down into giggles, joined by Tracey this time, Blaise and Daphne managing to keep their masks of indifference.

Finishing up eating he went to his dorm to enter his apartment to grab an old blanket. Once out of his trunk he tried calling a house elf, which to his surprise, worked.

"Sir called Tipsy?"

"Yes i did. I was wondering if you could prepare drinks and snacks for 6, and if you could put them in a basket and bring the basket to me?" he asked hopefully.

"Tipsy can do that." and she popped off without even a goodbye. Only to find him not 5 minutes later as he was making his way to the lake with a few books tucked in his arm. Taking the basket from the quiet elf, he went to find a nice spot for a picnic lesson.

—-

After lunch, which Alex deigned to skip and instead ate a snack and continued reading, he was found by his 5 students. After nearly a minute of standing around, Daphne cleared her throat, which was met with no response, so she tried again with the same result. Frowning, she then went up behind him and yelled "OI, WE'RE HERE!" causing him to flinch, sigh, mark and close his book and stretch.

"Past lunch, i take it?"

"That's what you said, so here we are."

"So here you are… right then, let's get the etiquette lessons done first so I can teach you how to kick ass fast." the teen lord said. "Daphne, you and Blaise can help me with basics, you're both purebloods, you can point out anything I might forget. First off, Hermione, read this, it's called _Wizarding Etiquette_, and it's a good starting point, after you're done, make sure Harry reads it."

"Doesn't Harry need this more than I do, considering he's supposed to be heir Potter."

"Probably but I'm betting you're a faster reader, and you reading this means you can help him when I'm not there hopefully. I'll answer any questions you have when you're done, but that book is a fantastic foundation to build on."

Hermione looked slightly annoyed at this. "You mean we aren't even going to learn anything today?!" she screeched.

"Well you want to learn defense don't you, my original idea was to speak to you while overwatching my fellow snakes in spell casting, but since you want to join in this as well, I changed some plans around, and gave you that to give you and him a Head Start."

This mollified the brown haired girl, knowing that it was her thirst for more knowledge that caused the change in lesson plans.

Alex then walked over to the slytherin group, signalling for them to split into a line in front of him. "First off, what defensive spells do you already know?"

Blaise was the first to answer. "Mainly the stunning spell, bludgeoning hex, and the bone breaker, my mother does not plan to teach me much in the way of defense until my OWLs, she thinks i would better handle the darker defensive spells then."

"Same here." Daphne echoed. "My parents have only taught me the minimum i might need, along with a few defensive wards to stop unwanted entry into my dorm room, and privacy spells."

"I only know basic spells, I do know the bludgeoning hex and _stupefy_ though…" Tracey finished meekly.

"Ok, a lot of work to do, but I can manage, you learned the disarming charm last year, or you should have according to what i heard, although I also heard your professor was useless so maybe not… hmm what to start with… right split into a pair, Daph and Trace, Blaise I'll pair you against me first, lucky you. To see where your skills lie, i want a practice duel, I'll be watching you two whilst Blaise and I duel, then I'll point out any flaws I find in your technique, let's leave the actual spell learning until I know what you have learned up until this point."

Alex let blaise begin their duel, who fired an _expelliarmus_ and attempted to follow it up with a stunner, but Alex just sidestepped both, raising and eyebrow at the dark skinned teen.

"I thought you knew a few spells Blaise, this is a duel, not children play-fighting, now take me seriously or you'll regret it!" he said, shouting the end and firing an _aguamenti _followed by a _glacius_ on the ground in their general area, creating an ice rink battlefield; he then proceeded to transfigure the bottoms of his shoes to have spikes on them to give him traction while Blaise was slipping around.

"One of the basic rules of a fight is to use the environment to your advantage whenever possible, whether it's using a rock for cover or transfiguring them into dangerous animals. If the battlefield isn't to your advantage, change it!"

Blaise apparently took his advice to heart, as while he was slipping around he used an _incendio_, melting the ice around him to give himself some solid footing.

"Good Zabini, good! But you still left yourself open to an attack!" Blaise looked up just in time to catch Alex's stunner with his face, collapsing like a puppet with cut strings onto the drenched grass and mud.

'A lot of work to do…' he groaned, setting Astrape to tittering. He looked away from Blaise to notice Daphne and Tracey had stopped duelling to Watch them, and the two gryffindors had also looked up from the book to watch. 'I suppose it's alright they had stopped, i wasn't paying them the attention I should have anyways.' he thought, referring to the slytherin duo. 'Wait until they know i can use wandless AND nonverbal magic.' he started chuckling, realizing his students would likely demand to be taught how to do that as well.

After using _enervate_ on Blaise, he _accio_'d 2 nearby rocks, transfiguring them into basic chairs for himself and Zabini to watch the girls duel. "Get on with it ladies, I intend to duel all 5 of you today to get the basics of where you are, but I'm letting you get warmed up duelling each other first. Harry, Hermione, you 2 pair up as well, go on and get your practice in before you duel me." following his orders, the next 10 minutes could only be described as organized chaos. Daphne and Tracey were flinging all manner of basic spells at each other, from _stupefy _to _impedimenta_, _petrificus totalus_, _tarantallegra_, everything but the kitchen sink attempting to get a leg up on the other. The duel finally ended when Daphne disarmed Tracey, but failed to catch the wand, sending it into a nearby bush. Alex called the match, summoning Tracey's wand to save her a trip.

"You're next Trace, let's see how you compare to Blaise." she got a determined look in her eyes and moved to be directly across from him, there was a tense moment of silence before Alex began a barrage of spells, nothing too damaging, but enough to ensure her attention was on the fight. He used the same trick of freezing the ground, and was pleased to note she repeated his strategy of spiked shoes quickly to not lose ground. She then surprised him by using an _avis_ and sending 2 doves at his face, which he quickly burned through with an _incendio, _causing everyone to grimace at the smell of charred avian. He decided to end the fight then while she was on a positive note, and fired a mass of _stupefy _through the dissipating flame, catching her by surprise and ending the match. Reviving her, he said. "Decent job, you learned from watching my first bout, but you still have a lot to learn, I was slightly impressed by the _avis_ though, it was unexpected but useful."

"Thank you." she beamed at the compliment.

"I'll let you all choose who's next, but hurry up." after some debate between the 3 remaining teens, it was decided that Hermione was next.

"C'mon Granger, show me what you got." he smirked, which caused a spike in annoyance for her, so she went on the offensive first, using a _ventus_ spell, albeit a weak one, to attempt to knock Alex over, but he sidestepped the small gust of wind and sent back a much bigger one of his own, sending Hermione skidding backwards into the mud of his earlier bout with Blaise, digging trenches into the earth with her sneakers. Hermione persevered, though, and fired off a _nebulus_, following his earlier advice about shifting the battlefield to your advantage, and covered the area in fog.

Alex was not to be deterred unfortunately, and just felt amused and slightly impressed with her ability as just a third year. "I must admit Hermione, I knew you were smart, but I didn't expect you to be able to adapt so well mid-fight, you'll be fun to teach so long as I don't let you get overconfident." saying this, he fired off an even larger _ventus_ than before, and kept firing them until the field was again clear, and the bushy haired guerrilla fighters location was revealed. He fired off a few _stupefy_'s that she dodged, but she slipped on some mud and Alex was easily able to disarm her in the moment of disarray. "That's kind of a shame, you might've been able to carry on a few more minutes without that, but them's the brakes." Hermione felt exhausted, but couldn't stop a smile from appearing at being praised for good work. She then began paying attention to the area outside of them, and noticed the slytherins looking impressed and harry beaming at her, clearly proud of her, which caused a small blush to appear that she battled down quickly, although Alex noticed and smirked.

"Daphne, you next." he said, moving over to the next clear area he could find. 'Good thing there's only two tests left, otherwise we might mess up a good portion of the Hogwarts grounds. Maybe next time I should take them into the forest." he considered, chuckling.

Daphne wasted no time initiating the conflict, starting strong with 2 bludgeoning hexes back to back that Alex chose to shield against, using a simple _protego_ and judging their strength, which he found to be above average, but nowhere near his power level. Returning fire he cast a _depulso_ which she just managed to avoid, but was caught by the bludgeoning hex he sent right behind it, and doubled over clutching her stomach. "Your enemies will not stop because you are in pain! Stand up, stand up and keep fighting!" he snapped, and gritting her teeth she did, granted she did it shakily, but she managed it. Pissed now, she started firing any spell she could think of, from _langlock _to _wingardium leviosa_, attempting to catch him off guard. He just tutted and fired off 3 _expelliarmus_, one on either side and one straight at her, so she couldn't dodge.

"You let me goad you into reacting, if I was a skilled opponent trying to kill you, I would have… you practice occlumency, you know the importance of keeping your cool, you need to get better with that if you want to become a truly great fighter, you aren't someone who fights off of emotion like Hermione did, you analyze the battlefield and make your decisions off of what you find, losing your cool like you did meant you quit analyzing and starting trying to hurt me, which was what ended the fight so quickly." she glared at him but nodded her head, and walked over to tracey, who asked if her stomach was okay, to which she nodded with a grimace.

"Right Potter you're the last one, let's see how you fare against the reigning champion!" he said before laughing, Harry smiled and noticed him battered classmates attempting to glare but barely hiding their own grins.

Harry waited for him to make the first move, surprisingly. Firing off a _flipendo_ Alex started small, Harry stepped nimbly out of the way of the curse and fired off a _stupefy_ in return, which Alex also sidestepped. The young lord smirked at Potter for a moment before beginning the battle in earnest, repeating his combo he used on Blaise and Tracey to freeze the ground, and keeping Harry on the move with random spells. He was surprised to note that Harry was fairly graceful on the ice, sure he slipped and slid a bit, but he never once looked as though he was going to fall, and even managed to return fire when he wasn't dodging. The stalemate continued like this for nearly 2 minutes, until Alex melted the Ice in front of harry with a well timed incendio, as he was sliding too fast, he was unable to stop himself and plowed into the ground, changing his slide into a run quickly but still stumbling for a moment, giving alex a chance to disarm him.

The young Potter again shocked Alex when he jumped the _expelliarmus_ turning it into a roll and coming up with one of his own, nearly disarming the heir Polaris. Alex's grin grew absolutely frightening at this point, as this was the most fun he'd had since he came to Hogwarts, fighting with someone who could actually fight back a bit; he decided to up the ante by adding a few bludgeoning hexes into the fray, to Harry's credit his eyes only widened and he devoted even more to dodging instead of attacking. Harry was forced almost entirely on the defensive, dodging blow after blow when Alexander decided to end the fight by picking up the pace and firing 5 silent _expelliarmus_ at Harry, who only managed to avoid 3. "FANTASTIC!" Alex shouted, he had loved fighting against someone who could fight back. "Damn potter, give me time to train you and you could be near my level." he then noticed that everyone was staring at him besides Harry, who had collapsed after the fight, breathing heavily on his back. Hermione was the first out of her stupor, and jogged over to Harry, making sure he was alright, before voicing the question on everyone else's minds. "Was that silent magic?" she asked. "That's NEWT level, how do you already know that?"

"I agree, silent magic is very advanced, and from the way you did it, you are at the very least familiar with it, if not advanced at it." Daphne added, to which Tracey and Blaise nodded.

Alex rubbed the back of his sheepishly and said. "Caught that did you? Yeah i know how to do it, and yes it is advanced for most wizards. What they fail to teach you all soon enough here is that magic is intent based, meaning that no matter what word you use, if you will something to happen hard enough and put your magic into it, it will happen. I could shout _avada kedavra_ at the top of my lungs, but if my intent is to tickle you, and i will that to happen, you will only drop to the ground laughing, not drop dead on the spot. You all impressed me today, you knew I was a superior opponent, though you didn't know by how much, and you all still fought me so I could test you. I'll probably be at it until we graduate, but I'll do my best to make skilled fighters out of you all. You though, Harry, you and I will be having more intense lessons than them, because you have a ton of power, you might nearly be my match, and also a natural skill at fighting, but it's unrefined at the moment. You could be a force to be reckoned with when trained, and I intend to be the one to train you, if only for my own entertainment, because once I have, the spars we could have would be AWESOME!" he finished excitedly, breaking the serious mood he had set during his speech. "Oh but please don't think that because I'm spending more time training Harry, that I don't like training you all, because I did enjoy all those spars, and you will all be good fighters when I'm done, Harry though, had the natural reflexes of a fighter, you all saw it, and the power in his spells indicates a very large core, approaching the level of my own, he could probably even form an aura if he gets emotional enough, or tries to draw on a large amount of power at once." once they all nodded that they understood, he continued.

"Right let's get into strengths and weaknesses. Zabini, you focused entirely on me at the start of the battle, and paid no attention to your environment, not good. But you also showed good reflexes and had decent power in your spells. You learned quickly, which also shows promise."

"Tracey, you, like everyone else, including Blaise, attempted to go easy on me at first, don't. I don't need the handicap, if anything you all do, and that's not me boasting or gloating, that's me stating a fact. You learned quickly from the fight with Blaise, and showed you paid attention by replicating my shoe spikes. You showed a large knowledge of basic spells between the 2 bouts you had, but none were truly meant for fighting, most were prank spells that could serve a purpose in spell chains, which I will teach about when you're all more advanced, but by themselves aren't much. You also weren't as nimble as Hermione or Harry, and were thus unable to avoid my spells as well."

Facing Daphne now, he began. "Daphne, you started strong and capable, but after I landed the bludgeoner, you fell apart, first you went down to begin with, you have to be able to take pain better than that, or the first diffindo or reducto will take you out of the fight, we'll work on that. You also let me goad you into lose your temper, you aren't an emotional fighter, so keep those emotions under control, keep practicing occlumency and eventually it will become easier to do, even when in the middle of doing other things, such as fighting."

"Hermione, you impressed me, I'll say that right now. You used spells beyond third year well, a little weak but that will get better as your core grows. Magic is a muscle, after all, and the more you use it the stronger it gets. But that also works in that if you overextend yourself, you only cause yourself injuries. You also showed a keen sense of the duelling area, and tried to turn the surroundings to your advantage, but lost your footing at the end in the mud, I won't say that's fully your fault, luck is partially at fault, as you had the misfortune to step wrongly and slip, but you could've been paying attention and avoided the mud altogether."

Harry Potter, Harry Harry Harry… you have an honestly intense amount of potential, but your spell repertoire is lacking terribly, you could've kept the fight going but you didn't even use a shield charm once, after awhile it occured to me that you honestly didn't know it, and at your power level that's just sad. You kept moving at all times to make a difficult target, and kept your balance well, while keeping me on my toes with the few spells you have in your pocket. You'll need to start focusing in class more, I'm not talking a Hermione level of dedication, but enough to show your true talent, and hone that talent. I'm sure Hermione would be willing to help you out with that. If you need more of a reason to buckle down on your studies, I'm gonna guilt trip you here and not feel bad about it…" he walked over and whispered something in Harry's ear, causing him to stiffen and him eyes to dim slightly. Hermione looked worried but didn't know what was said, so she just put her hand on Harry's back and started rubbing circles with her thumb. "Now back to what I was saying, yes I'm going to be expanding your knowledge of spells next lesson, all of you, not just Harry. Take my advice to heart please, all of you, it will only make this easier for us both."

"I'll see you guys later, I need a shower after that workout before dinner, and I'm sure most of you do as well, so see ya." he cleaned his blanket with a _scourgify_, and made his way to the dungeons to clean up, leaving his students behind him in thought.

As they separated to head back to their separate common rooms, Hermione asked Harry, "Harry what did he say that got to you so badly? I haven't seen you that affected by anything since everyone thought you were the heir of slytherin." he took a moment to compost himself before answering, and said. "He told me something I honestly hadn't thought of before now. He..he told me that my parents would want me to try my hardest, and that I should be, so that I didn't disappoint them. I know that my family did well in school, people refer to you as the next lily potter after all, so I know my mum was a genius because you are too. And my dad must've been smart too cause I doubt my mum would marry an idiot, plus he was head boy, and my mum was head girl too, another sign they were smart. But here I am just coasting along… merlin i feel like trash now." he finished in barely more than a whisper, causing hermione to practically break his ribs in a hug as she whispered back.

"Harry, you are anything but a disappointment, just think about everything that you've done. First year you beat a fully grown mountain troll to save a girl's life, who is still very thankful for that by the way."

"I had Ron's help for that, and it was partially my fault you were in there anyway, cause I didn't say anything to Ron when he bullied you cause he was my first friend my age, even though I hate bullies because of how my cousin Dudley is."

"It wasn't your fault I was in there Harry. Either way I forgave Ron for his harsh words, and you had done nothing to require my forgiveness. Next, you caught the snitch in your first game, as a first year I might add, even though your broom was being jinxed. You then proceeded to save everyone by stopped Volde-quirrell from getting the philosopher's stone, nearly dying in the process."

"I also killed quirrell that night too, when he touched me he started burning, turning to ash, but he kept trying to get the stone, there was nothing I could do." he slumped in Hermione's arms, but started hugging her back.

"Second year, you killed the basilisk to save the school, and the same grateful girl from

before again, I might add; nearly dying in the process once again because you got bit, but still You stopped Voldemort from coming back to life by killing another girl who was the sister of one of your best friends by destroying his cursed journal. Harry you are a hero, and not just for what the wizarding world thinks of you, for your own achievements. If you will accept nothing else, I will make you accept you are MY hero, do you understand?" she backed out of the hug enough to give him a serious stare, to which he colored and eventually nodded to.

Nodding to herself, she returned to hugging him and said. "If you truly want to do better in your studies Harry, I would be happy to help you. I'll also try to not go overboard and overload your brain." she chuckled and tried to let him go, only for him to hug her harder for a moment and say.

"Thanks Hermione, I don't know what I'd do without you." he let her go and started walking off to hide his blush, missing her own blush and her soft mumble. "I don't know what I'd do without you either, Harry."

—-

Alex was singing softly to himself on the way back to the dungeons with a smile on his face, his tutoring lessons had gone much better than expected, but now he needed to clean up for dinner. After showering away his grime and aches, he walked to the great hall and sat with the gryffindor trio, Ron being with Harry and Hermione this time.

"How are you so energetic right now, my body's aching in places i forgot could ache, and I play quidditch with oliver wood as a captain!" Harry complained, and they all heard Oliver shout out an 'OI' from further down the table, causing the gryffindor team to grin.

"I'm not energetic Harry, I'm happy to have found someone to challenge me in power, and in skill once we're done training. My private tutors have been the only people to really challenge me, and since coming here I haven't seen any of them, but even they weren't a match for my magical power, only in skill and experience, and I was rapidly catching up on both. We are in the upper echelon of magical cores harry, the only others I can think of with cores to match ours are Dumbledore and Voldemort, and by the time we're fully matured even they might fall behind." he narrowed his eyes in annoyance at the house of the brave's fearful reaction to Voldemort. "If the lion's den can't even utter a name, then we truly are lucky he was defeated, honestly the 3 third years here were the only ones who didn't flinch people, come on."

"How about you, Hermione, your weary bones aching too?" Alex teased.

"More than aching, it's downright torture, how you aren't sore i don't know, considering you fought 5 of us."

"Cause I'm used to fighting trained opponents with more experience and knowledge than above average third years, that's why. Take a hot bath and soak in it awhile, both of you, it honestly helps."

"Shite Hermione, I'm sorry, I should have told you that! I do that after quidditch normally cause it helps so I knew to do it today."

"I'll do that, and it's fine harry, honestly you probably thought I'd already known to do that."

"I'm surprised you didn't find it in a book yet." Ron ribbed, causing Hermione to narrow her eyes at him. Ron, not being stupid, backed off before she hexed him for teasing.

"At least you all get to sleep in tomorrow, I've got a meeting with a sorting hat, he's supposed to share some stories about the founders with me." all 3 stared at him after he revealed this.

"When did this happen? How did this happen?" Hermione asked.

"When he sorted me, I asked him if he wanted to, cause I'm sure he gets bored sitting in an office with just Dumbledore all the time. He said yes, talked to the headmaster, and we arranged a date to meet up and chat." she just blinked at his reply.

"Blimey, someone has friends in high places." Ron muttered amusedly.

"Yep, you should've heard the headmaster talking about his chat with the hat, apparently he was threatened with non-stop opera singing until he agreed to it." they all shared a laugh.

Dinner was finished without trouble, but walking back to his common room Alex began to feel tense, as though he was being watched, analyzed for weakness, as he was about to turn a corner in the hallway, he heard a mutter behind him and dived to the left to avoid a red light flying towards him. Coming up from the ground with his cherry wand in hand, he saw robe flowing past a corner in the hall, and going to investigate, he found Marcus Flint in an abandoned classroom, who threw a cutting curse as soon as Alex walked through the door that could've hurt if the young lord hadn't ducked and came up with a _petrificus totalus_ that struck him center mass, toppling him over as he was mid-step.

"You're the quidditch captain for slytherin, aren't you? Any particular reason you tried to shoot me in the back?" of course, Flint couldn't answer as he was still petrified, but Alex could see worry in his eyes. "I'm not gonna hurt you Flint, I'll give you that one as a freebie, but why me, what was the purpose of it?" he undid the spell, but kept his wand trained on Flint, who watched it warily, standing up.

"Malfoy. He wanted me to do it. Said something about associating with trash, and teaching you a lesson, I don't remember the exact words, but that's the gist of it. I apologize for attempting to attack you, may I please leave?"

"You don't seriously think it's gonna be that easy do you?"

"EASY, you said you wouldn't hurt me!" he stated worriedly, yet held a hint of anger in his voice.

"And I won't but i need more information than that, why now, in the halls? Did he want you to carry me somewhere or just leave me here? Did he have any other help he spoke of? Things like that, so I know what I may be walking into."

Flint gulped, but acquiesced. "There were a few students in my year he also got to help him with something different, I don't know what though, but if it helps, it looked like the Runes nerds that people get to help with their homework."

"Not much, but it'll have to do, c'mon Flint, let's go back to the common room, looks like I get to have some FUN tonight." Alex sang with a gleam in his eye that worried Marcus.

Entering the common room, Alex shouted out. "Oh Maaaalfooooyyy, you failed you blond bitch, your lackey wasn't able to stun me!" Malfoy got up at this and attempted to run and hide in his dorm, but was caught by a stunner in the back by Alex, tripping and landing on his face.

"Wonder if he broke anything, oh well it'd probably be an improvement, now who helped him with a runes project earlier, step forward and explain what he had you do, and I won't hunt you down after I take it down, but if I have to figure out what it is for myself, that might not be the case." 2 students stepped forward hesitantly at this, and explained how Draco had wanted them to set up a ward around his door frame that would cause Alex to sneeze uncontrollably AND break out in boils. "I must admit, I'm impressed. I thought he was too stupid to come up with something like this, get lost I have to take down this shitty ward so I can go to sleep."

Daphne, Blaise, and Tracey came to offer their aid, but alex just laughed lightly and told them he had it handled. And had it handled he did, in less than 10 minutes he took down a ward that took nearly an hour to put up, and was showering in his apartment,, preparing for bed.

—-

**September 5th, 1993**

Alexander decided to visit the just after lunch, and entered after uttering 'chocoballs' in front of the guardian of the door. Once up the stairs he noticed the headmaster in his usual seat, with the hat resting on his table. They were in the middle of a conversation already, Alex noticed.

"I tell you Albus, I will not do it, I won't, not for all the cleanings you might give me afterwards, I refuse to go back on Lovegood's head. Whatever happened to her mother affected her and now she can see magical auras. That's it, end of story. How she's managed to rationalize it all and stay sane without knowing I don't know, but I can assure you she is sane, strange, but sane."

"If you say so, I will trust in your judgement, but the other professors have reported her odd behavior to me, so I thought to bring it up with you."

"Problems, headmaster?"

Dumbledore looked up and smiled, though it was tired. "A second year, Luna Lovegood. Her mother died in an accident spell crafting when she was small, and Luna was nearby. A few professors reported to me about her having odd behavior, so I was just asking Flopsy about her mental state."

"More like asking me to go and do a deep scan on her entire mind to figure out whether she was insane."

"But I chose to trust in Flopsy's judgement about her sanity, and am leaving it be." albus pushed on. "Anywho, how are you today, Mister Polaris."

"I am well headmaster."

"I have heard you are settling into your classes well, performing in the top 3 in every class, with comments passing to me such as 'he doesn't even seem like he's trying' or 'I think the boy's a prodigy Albus'... I understand your guardian said you were ahead, but I might have just underestimated how much." he chuckled to himself. "I heard about another confrontation with Mister Malfoy last night, this time apparently you barging into the common room and stunning him, might I have an explanation for that."

"He set up a ward on my door frame, and sent Marcus Flint to keep me busy while him and 2 others were putting it up, after stopping Flint from stunning me, i got the full story from him and went to confront the conspirator and co-conspirators; Malfoy ran, so I stunned him. I then took down said ward, which would have made me sneeze uncontrollably and grow boils when walking through my door frame."

"Perhaps soon Mister Malfoy will learn there are those more skilled than him who don't fear his father… but until I am afraid we must all persevere, including you. Do try not to harm him please."

"I understand sir, how are you Hat?"

"I'm fine boy, wishing Albus would use a smell spell so his office wouldn't smell like lemon drops, but fine."

Alex laughed at that, and Albus smiled at the hat. "But if I were to do that, then I wouldn't be able to smell my favorite confection." he teased.

"That's partially the point headmaster, though mostly it's for my sake."

After a moment to calm down, Alex asked. "So hat, you informed me you had many stories you could tell about your time among the sentient. Care to share a few?"

"I could share the store about the school motto, if you wish."

"_draco dormiens nunquam titillandus?" _Alex asked.

"Indeed, never tickle a sleeping dragon, merlin Godric was an idiot."

"This sounds like something I've gotta hear, spill hat!"

"Basically, Salazar heard tales from the nearby village about a dragon's hoard in a cave nearby. Naturally, he wished to go there, and gather up potion ingredients, not to mention the treasure hoard itself. Rowena, also naturally, wished to examine the hoard and write down her findings and put it towards a book on dragon behavioral patterns. Godric… the merlin damned fool wanted to tame it and bring it to the grounds where they were planning to build Hogwarts… and Helga wished to accompany her friends to aid them in case something went wrong. She always was the most compassionate of the bunch."

"Arriving at the cave, Salazar and Rowena were going to enter first, but Godric charged straight past them, holding me onto his head so I didn't fly off, and ran into the wrong tunnel… it took the group nearly an hour of spelunking to find us, but at least along the way they found the tunnel with the hoard as well. Once we were all reunited and at the hoard, Godric skipped through the treasure all around him, and went past it into a clearing to see what else, but a fully grown Welsh Green, a nesting mother no less! But Godric was nothing if not a capable fighter, and he held off the dragon for nearly 10 minutes, injuring it in the process, before Salazar came through and spoke to the dragon attempting to calm it with Parseltongue. But the beast was too enraged to be soothed, and began thrashing about the cave. If Rowena and Helga hadn't arrived to help subdue it, the cave would have collapsed and Slytherin and Gryffindor would've been no more. As it was, we managed to get out with bagfuls of treasure and ingredients, and Godric swore he would never again tickle a sleeping dragon, hence the school motto."

"Gryffindor sounded awful careless, and kind of dumb to be honest." Alex said after he quit laughing.

"Godric… he might not have been as smart as Salazar, nor as wise as Rowena. He may not have had the natural charisma that Helga had, but one thing godric did have, was that he was the one person any of the founders would want beside them in a battle. He could turn the tides in what would be seen as a hopeless loss at any other time. Godric was an extremely capable strategist, but an even more competent fighter. Godric and Salazar are the only two wizards to ever earn the title of battle mage since merlin himself. They were forces of destruction, cutting swathes through entire armies at their prime. Godric especially was considered a master of 'battle magic' a magic I am sure your own line is intimate with…"

"You would be correct in that assumption, we have a few books on it that belonged to Godric himself, I've seen them in the library at Polairix, but they were too advanced for me at the time and I haven't gone back to them yet."

The three continued similar conversations four nearly 3 hours, Albus having to leave at times to tend to one of his many duties, but rejoining the conversation every time he returned smoothly. Eventually the young lord managed to bid his farewells until next time, deciding to go and talk with his friends about what he'd managed to learn about the past today. Alex went to sleep that night content that he had learned much, and thanking Alcar for his decision to send him here, as he was enjoying making friends immensely.

—-

**September 9, 1993**

When Alex woke up, he had a feeling today would be a shitty day. He didn't know why or how he knew, he could have called it divination, if he didn't think that class was a joke, but he just had a _feeling _that today would suck. So… what else was there to do but be ready for anything.

The young lord made his way to breakfast, both wands holstered up his sleeves, knife in his boot, and a few other things in his bag of tricks. Astrape, sensing his emotions, stayed a silent, but comforting presence. Even Malfoy noticed something was up with him, and using his smaller than average brain, deduced that unless he wanted a repeat of previous events, he should leave the new kid alone.

His friends noticed his stiffness, and asked him what was wrong, so he told them exactly what was wrong, just a feeling… it wasn't until defense against the dark arts that he found out what his feeling was. Boggarts, beings that become your worst fears, not only that, Lupin wanted each of the students to OVERCOME their fear, god Alex knew this was going to go poorly.

One after another, students went up and faced their fears, the only ones that honestly did anything to Alex were the spiders, they creeped him out, but by no means were they his worst fear, though Ron seemed terrified of them. The one Patil twins boggart, Padma alex thought her name was turned into a giant cobra, which Alex wouldn't have minded were it not as big as a fully grown Basilisk.

Hermione's boggart, amusingly to Alex, was Mcgonagall failing her, though he made sure she was alright afterwards, and he personally thought harry comforting her made her feel better than anything else, so he made a note to tease her about it later.

Finally, his turn came up, and he moved up in front of the damn cupboard, wand at the ready. The shapeshifting fear creature stayed silent for a moment, then popped out, turning into… an older version of Alex?

Alex examined the person in front of him with dull eyes, noting the body littered in scars, tattered clothes, manic eyes and smile, with dread, also noticing the sheer amount of blood on him, most of which Alex just knew didn't belong to him. "Hello," boggart-Alex started, "man I was short back in the day, wasn't I? How's life treating you so far hmm. Haven't thrown away those silly ideals yet have you, you really should. I guarantee life will be much more fun when you have." Alex toned out the entire class besides them, though only Lupin was making noise, urging him to send the boggart back.

"That's right, I haven't forsaken myself quite yet faker, nor do I have any intentions to do so." Alex stated, fire reentering his eyes. "I see before me the result of that, and I have no wish to become a broken shell."

"You talk too damn much mini-me, just do it! You won't succeed in the end, you will only crush yourself under the weight of your ideals, your will shattered, mind broken! I have seen this, I have lived it! You will never find the tether you seek, no one would ever want to ground someone as damaged as us! So we went to the battlefields seeking a glorious death, but shocker! We were too strong, we can't be beaten!" the fake Alex began laughing maniacally at this point. "You talk of forsaking yourself. Your options are either forsake yourself, or lose yourself entirely to bloodlust and hatred! You wish to become the strongest, yet you also want to find a future, a family. You wish to be the strongest to ensure you can protect those you care for, but you know just as well as I do that we carry a darkness inside of us, an enjoyment for the thrill of battle, the adrenaline rush we gain when we put our life against our foes. Just lose yourself in it, forget about being grounded to the world through ties of friendship and love, because we are cursed with solitude!"

Alex sat in front of the broken man screaming in his face calmly, not betraying the turmoil he was facing in his mind, Astrape doing her best to calm him down. "I will not." he whispered. "I will not allow myself to become like you. You, who only live for the thrill of risking your life against another. You, who only wish for death to find you, because you failed to bond to anyone. I see you and I see failure, but the Lord Polaris DOES NOT FAIL! I SEE YOU AND I ONLY BECOME MORE DETERMINED TO NOT END UP LIKE YOU, YOU DAMN FAKE! I see you and understand the costs of failure, I see my soul broken before my very eyes, and I refuse to end up like that. I will find my future, unlike you, I will find a reason to live, A happiness away from war, battle, and bloodshed." Alex was whispering again at this point, yet his voice still managed to carry across the class so everyone could hear.

The fake grew livid at this, and attempted to charge Alex, but he shouted out "_RIDDIKULUS!"_ and the copy turned paper thin, and folded in on itself, alex then cast a wind spell, and sent the thing flying across the room, causing a few chuckles in the charged classroom, which was enough to send it back into the cupboard, waiting for another victim.

Lupin stared at Alex, eyes betraying sympathy, but asked. "Why did you not do that immediately, Mister Polaris?"

"Because then i wouldn't have conquered my fear, although my fear can't altogether be beaten in a classroom anyways, but at the very least I uphold my ideals, my morals that I live by." Alex said shakily, still staring at where the boggart was. "Although I will admit, I would like to leave now, that was… draining. Cathartic, but draining."

"Quite, you may go to the infirmary if you wish, I'm sure Madam Pomphrey would give you a calming draught."

"I think I'll just go soak in a hot shower until I particularly want to move, thank you though for the idea though professor." Remus looked at him concernedly for a moment, this nodded his assent, and Alex went to his apartment and sat under hot water, knees tucked to his chest and thought about what he'd seen and heard. Eventually though, he knew he should quit moping, and made his way to his class, which happened to be herbology at this point in time, which served him fine, as working with plants was fairly calm, even if most magical flora tried to fight 10 rounds with him with nothing but teeth and vine. He made a valiant effort at ignoring any stares being sent his way, as he knew the rumor mill had likely already spread his confrontation with the boggart across the school.

On his way to dinner, a house elf apparated in front of him, handed him a note, and popped back out. The note was from Dumbledore, asking for him to come to his office after

dinner. 'Damn, people must think I'm a miscreant, as much as I've been to his office since I came here.'

'_You are a miscreant, little one, they just haven't realized it yet.'_ Astrape said, and alex felt her mirth through the bond they shared.

Alex mock-gasped and thought back. 'Only because you corrupted me, Astrape, I was an innocent squirt before i met you, since then it's been adventure after adventure… you've set my standards too damn high, although I can't say I would change anything about meeting you, cause you are my closest friend, probably closer to a sister at this point to be honest.' he started jokingly, but ended on a serious note, conveying how much he appreciated his familiar, and felt love radiating back through the bond.

As he sat at the gryffindor table once again, he was met with looks of concern from the golden trio, he just gave a light glare back and said, "I don't need sympathy or pity or anything like that, I'm over it guys, let's just move past it, the same as you did Ron, and you, Hermione; Harry, I don't know what your boggart was, but I'm sure you're over it."

"It was a dementor." he supplied helpfully.

"So you fear...fear. Interesting concept. You should get Professor Lupin to teach you the Patronus charm, I'm sure he knows it from the train, he left the cart to check on everyone else without a second thought, he had a way to defend himself."

"Are you sure you're alright, though?" Hermione pressed. "It can't have been easy to face your fear like that, merlin knows i was terrible after i faced mine. I'll stop bugging you if you honestly tell me you're ok…" she was frowning concernedly, which made Alex smile for a moment, and reply.

"I swear I'm fine, i came out on top in the verbal spar we had, I held up my ideals before that fake and successfully defended them against him. I am different from him, as he's a version of me that was never able to make bonds to tie him down… I'm already making those ties with you three, and Blaise, Daph, and Trace. You all are my friends, you'll keep me from becoming like him, along with my guardian, Alcar. I'll never become like him as long as I have **someone**__to keep me grounded." he kept smiling throughout his speech, and Hermione's frown faded to an understanding upward lilt of her mouth, and Harry and Ron both smiled at him.

After supper, he made his way back to the gargoyle, which swung aside and let him in without him even uttering the password. 'Guess it's a benefit of being expected.' he thought.

He made his way to his usual seat, noting the headmaster worriedly looking at him.

"I am fine Headmaster, I was tempted to hex the next person that asked, but one, while you look like you're about to, you haven't. And two, you're Albus Dumbledore, so hexing you wouldn't work too well."

"Yes, there are some perks to being me, it seems…" he chuckled, but slightly relaxed knowing that his student was indeed coping. "You know my boy, I had seen something saturday I thought interesting, but didn't think to mention it at our last meeting, so I was going too at our next meeting. Tell me young man, have you started a duelling club?" he frowned good-naturedly.

"Not so much a duelling club as a defense club. The duels were just me getting a general idea of how good they were and where I should start with improving their skills. It began with Harry and Hermione asking me for Wizarding etiquette lessons, as Harry's magical guardian had apparently left him lacking in the area." Albus stiffened slightly at this, but Alex didn't notice. "Then a few slytherins got added to the list when they saw me defend myself against malfoy and wanted to learn how to better defend themselves. Then, when I told Harry and Hermione about the defense lessons, they wanted in on those as well, so it became a sort of unofficial defense club."

"Interesting… tell me Mister Polaris, if i were to make it official, would you be willing to teach more students? I would of course have a professor or two be willing to aid you with lesson plans for the meetings, but I think learning how to defend oneself is never a bad thing."

"May I think about it, I would attempt to have an answer for you by our next meeting?"

"Yes that's perfectly alright, I understand it is a big decision, time to think is understandable." he shifted for a moment, before adding. "Mister Polaris, I must also thank you for teaching Mister Potter Etiquette for his future. You see, I am his magical Guardian, but between my 3 different jobs all of utmost importance, and his living with muggle guardians for the summers, I was unable to teach him many things I should have." he sagged, sighing out "just another thing I failed at with him, unfortunately…" but he didn't expand on that, so Alex decided to let it be for now.

"Do you regret taking his guardianship then? As you and him have made it out to be you had practically no contact with him as he knew nothing of the magical world. But on the other hand, there were worse people he could've gone to if the ministry got their claws into him, or black managed to get him."

"...at times I wish I had done things differently, but while I didn't keep in contact with him myself, I had someone nearby watching him. His childhood...was not happy, but it was SAFE… and that shall have to do for us both unfortunately."  
"Elaborate?"

"There are special protections around his muggle relatives home that keep him safe, but… they are not fond of magic, nor are they fond of him."

"Are we talking verbally abusive, or physically, or emotionally, I won't even entertain the thought of sexual abuse because if they did that I'm certain you would have taken him from there."

"Verbal and emotional from what my watcher has informed me of, if it ever got physical whatsoever i would take him from there. He suffered for my inability to watch him, I will admit to my failure, but I will also take heart from the fact that he is alive and has become all the better in spite of my failures… you know my boy, you truly are beyond your age."

"I've been told that before. People say it's an old soul in a young body."

"Headmaster, if you wish to, he need not return to an abusive home. He could stay with me at Polairix, I'm certain it's safer than anywhere else in the world, even hogwarts."

"I shall think on it throughout the year, but it bears pondering for certain. It would alleviate my concerns and allow harry a measure of happiness for what little remains of his childhood."

"Well, I suppose we both have things to think on, don't we." Alex chuckled, and was joined by Albus.

"I suppose so, have a good evening Mister Polaris."

"You too headmaster."

AN: probably going to stop including dates eventually in this thing, once we stray far enough from canon, but atm i have a website with the full events of third year ready to use. Gonna ease into the ships, take it slowly, but it will get there, sooner for harry and hermione than alex, as tonks is already a trainee. Hope you guys liked Alex facing his inner demons, i got the idea from the fate: unlimited blade works anime with shirou vs EMIYA and their battle of ideals, and thought it would fit with building the character I'm trying to make alex into fairly well with some changes. Will upload when its done, no schedule, hope y'all enjoyed, see ya next time.


	4. Chapter 4 stuck in the middle with you

Defiance of Fate: chapter 4

Stuck in the middle with you

I do not own harry potter or it's wonderful world, only any OCs i introduce.

_"A little nonsense now and then, is cherished by the wisest men."_

– **Roald Dahl**

The next few days flew by for Alex, and before he knew it he was heading for the next training lesson with his gaggle of friends. He decided on the same venue as last time, the field near the lake. He had packed the same blanket as last time for Harry and Hermione to have their etiquette lesson on, and he had another basket of snacks for those that got hungry.

Upon asking if the gryffindor duo had finished the book and received a positive reply from both, though Hermione stated she had to help Harry along or he wouldn't have managed it, he quizzed them on what they had learned.

"When should one refer to another by their given name?"

"When given permission to do so." both answered.

Correct," alex praised. "Next, what is the proper attire to wear to a formal dinner?"

"Dress robes, with a formal suit underneath, or conservative dress clothes for a lady."

"Also correct, another question, how should one posture when speaking to another?"

"Back straight, making eye contact, speaking clearly and evenly."

"Correct on all 3, congratulations you 2, there's hope for you yet." Alex joked.

"Now that that's taken care of, let's get down to the fun part of the lessons and get ready for defense training. You guys should probably be made aware of this, but I spoke to Dumbledore the other evening, after the boggart incident, and he asked me if I would be willing to teach a full defense club, instead of just you 5, and I haven't given him an answer yet, nor was I planning to until Sunday. I want to hear your opinions on what you all think I should do, since this class was mainly for your benefit to begin with."

They all looked at each other for a few moments, then shrugged nearly in unison. Hermione chose to be the voice for the group and said. "I think in terms of more people to practice against, it would be good, but it would also mean more work for you, this should be a decision you make, not us." Daphne nodded her head at this.

Alex sighed. "Yea that's fair, I just don't know whether to do it yet or not, I guess I'll figure it out eventually, I guess it would be the easy way out to just do what you guys say without thinking it through."

The blue eyed teen then brightened, and drew his cherry wand. "Right, today we'll be learning a few new spells,I'll be giving most of you different spells to learn, since you are all at different levels in your defense education. First, I'll start with you Harry. You will have a fairly basic lesson today, as I am just going to be teaching you how to shield when you cannot dodge. You'll be learning 2 shield spells, the _protego_ charm, and a personal favorite of mine, that requires more power than _protego_ but is more powerful as a direct result, the _fortis aegis_ spell. First, let's get through the first charm, the wand movement is like so, practice while I direct the others, then I'll come back to you." Harry began incanting the shield charm, practicing the proper wand movement.

"You will be learning a grey spell from the Polairix library, one which can cause great damage, but will also provide you with a modicum of protection, _frangitarrae_, which is bastardized latin for earth smash, allow me to demonstrate." he got into a fighting stance, aimed his wand at the ground and incanted the spell, which created a rift in a circle around him that rapidly spread, cracking the ground as it moved and causing areas of the earth to either raise or lower, changing the terrain of the field.

"This is another spell to take control of the terrain around you. By raising the terrain, you create cover for yourself and throw your opponent off balance. Uses a fair amount of power, but I find it to be worth it at times." he then proceeded to repair the Hogwarts grounds, evening out the earth, to save himself a lecture from the headmaster. He looked up and noticed Blaise staring at him with excitement, eager to try the powerful spell. "Do try to not make it too difficult for me to repair the grounds, I'd rather have some magical energy left after the lesson." Alex added.

"Hermione, I noticed in our bout, you both had good reflexes and a spell knowledge far beyond your third year education. That's great, it means we can move straight into advanced stuff, I was especially impressed with the fog spell, I don't even think that's outright taught at Hogwarts." she looked embarrassed but replied. "It's not, I found it in the library and thought it was interesting and could come in handy. Knowing Harry's luck especially." a shout of 'OI' could be heard from Harry's general direction.

"Well on that tangent, I've decided to teach you a rarer spell I know of from the Polairix library, as I'm not sure what all you've read from the Hogwarts one. This spell is a healing charm called _sutura vulnere_. It's meant to close gashes or slashes, not really able to help with pierce or stab wounds as efficiently until any internal damage is healed, so make sure you take care of that beforehand. This should aid you should Potter's law ever cause one of you to need a healer and you aren't near Pomphrey." he then proceeded to use a cutting spell on a nearby tree branch, and transfigured said branch into an injured human body, complete with gashes which, although bloodless, looked fairly realistic. He showed the wand movement for the spell on one of the smaller cuts, healing it nicely and leaving unmarred skin where it was. "You practice doing that, and I'll check up on you in a bit."

"Tracey, I noticed in our duel you employed transfiguration and conjuration, in small doses. Yet, it still took you nearly twice the amount of time it took me to transfigure simple shoe spikes, so instead of teaching you a spell, I am going to help you improve your transfiguration, and in turn, your conjuration. Transfiguration is a branch of magic that focuses on 3 things" magical power, imagination, and determination. You have to have the power to pull of the transfigurations, say if I tried to transfer that tree over there into a troll," he lectured, pointing at a nearby tree that towered over their practice area "then I would be able to do it, but you on the other hand would probably be near exhaustion just after that one transformation.

Magic is a muscle, and the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets, so we will have to start smaller and work our way up to grand alterations. I want you to make a lifelike replica of a predator of some sort, I don't care how you do it, but I don't want to be able to tell the difference between the real and fake, and then you will animate it and sent it at me to test its effectiveness. Before you animate it, though, inform me that you're ready for that step, and I'll come over here as soon as I'm able." he then moved to the last on his list of students, Daphne.

"Daph, have you been practicing you occlumency since last time?" at her confirmation, he continued. "Fantastic, besides you losing your temper, you had a fairly diverse knowledge of basic spells, but nothing terribly advanced, so we shall be rectifying that today. The spell I'm going to teach you is a combat curse that, while basic, can be used to great effectiveness if you put forth the effort of mastering it. The chant for it is _ignis flagellum_, also known as the flame whip spell. Its a basic spell to begin mastering, most people that use it have a whips ranging from 5-20 feet. I can hold a whip for up to 40 feet myself, though I've never had a reason to do so, I only pushed myself to… well to push myself. After a certain point it becomes a liability to have a long whip over a short one, you see, and it's all about what the situation calls for as to what length you should use.  
For instance, when in a small area, you don't want to be slinging around a 20 foot flaming rope, when a 10 foot would cause much greater damage as it wouldn't be impeded by objects or walls. I'll be back to check on you in a bit, I'm going to make my way back through the line-up and see how everyone else is doing." waving him off, she began trying to summon a whip, but at her first attempt what she summoned forth could have been called a flame string on a good day. Chuckling, he made his way back to Blaise to see how badly the terrain had been misformed since he left.

—-

Making his way to dinner later that night, he was confronted by two redheads who could only be Weasleys judging by their likeness to Ron. they each put an arm around his shoulder and began guiding him to a nearby abandoned classroom. Once inside they activated a few privacy spells and turned to him, developing identical mischievous smiles.

"So this is the new snake that's been making nice with the gryffs eh Fred…" the first twin mused.

"Indeed Feorge, no other snake would be so carefree at being around us 2 in a deserted area."

"He's not scared Fred, he's either brave or he hasn't heard about our reputation yet."

"Well how about we introduce ourselves then Georgey"

"Hello," they turned to him and said in unison "we're Fred and George, ickle-ronniekins older brothers, not to be confused with headache boy percy, and we're small time pranksters, looking to make our way in the big bad world."

"Don't fool the poor kid, George, we're Hogwarts resident mischief makers and and prank masters."

"We're twin Loki's playing pranks on asgard." the other one, George added

"Good comparison oh brother of mine."

"I thought so myself, slightly less handsome brother of mine."

Alex at this point was laughing loudly at the way they could banter, but wondering why they brought him here. A few moments of back and forth later, they turned to him with a gleam in their eyes. "So you are the slytherin that's been hanging around our little brother and his friends, huh. Well, since you seem to be an alright sort, we thought we'd give you an ahead of time warning, we're planning a prank on slytherin, the whole house. You might wanna tell your groupies that you and the wild haired couple hang out with, otherwise they won't be pleased with us."

"I'll do that… any other words of wisdom to impart to me?" Alex asked bemused.

"If you happen to know it and decide to sit at your table, cast a bubblehead charm, other than that, just don't be there mate." Fred said.

"Understood, thank you for the warning kind sirs, and should you require assistance with mischief making in the future, you need only request my aid." Alex said haughtily, completing the act with an exaggerated bow to the twins. Returning the bow just as overdone as Alex did it, they bid their farewells and left chuckling. After jogging to the dungeons to tell his friends to sit at gryffindor or be at risk of prank, he relaxed for a bit before dinner.

He made sure to sit on the side of the table that faced slytherin, so he could watch the promised show unfold. Daphne joined him as she wouldn't miss any chance to see the blond idiot get humiliated, and Tracey and Blaise sat across as they didn't care too much, Harry and Hermione made sure to sit together to on Alex's side, with Ron sitting across from them. After waiting nearly 20 minutes, Fred and George motioned for him to watch from further down the table, and before his eyes the goblets they were drinking from started smoking, covering the entire table in a fine mist that lasted nearly 15 seconds by Alexs count, then dissipated to reveal the skin of every slytherin had turned either silver or green, and when they tried to speak, it was shown that everyone had a forked tongue. Many attempted to _finite_ the charms, but failed, and thus ran to the dungeons to hide until they wore off.

Alex snickered and walked over to the twins and sat between them. "Not very creative are we gentlemen."

They only smirked at him before replying. "It's the start of the year, we usually start small and work our way up mate."

"Just wait until the feast before we leave for the hols, we usually do some of our best work then."

"Last year we animated Dumbledore's podium and had it try to waltz with him, the cheeky bastard only told it that he was leading before he started in!"

"Word for the wise if you ever prank Dumbledore though, he gets his payback… a week after we got back from home, when me and Freddie walked into the great hall we suddenly felt an undeniable urge to do the charleston…In the middle of breakfast."

Clapping the twins on the back, he got up and began his own trek to the dungeons to prepare for bed.

—-

"Ah, hello my boy, how are you doing today?"

"Good headmaster, great actually. I've been thinking these past few days about what you asked me, and after a good amount of sulking and agonizing, I came to a decision, and based that decision, came up with a counter offer. I will teach a defense club, but I will also teach my friends separately, I'll do my weekly meetings with them, but I'll do one defense club meeting a month, and I am hoping you will be able to assign an agreeable teacher to aid in these meetings, agreeable meaning anyone besides professor snape, as I feel he would do poorly in actually working with the students, and would discourage people from attending."

"Hmm, I think I can agree to those terms, you are correct of course, Severus is many things, but a people person he is not. I shall ask Pomona, Filius, Minerva, and Remus if they would be willing to aid you. Possibly, I could also ask Aurora to assist you, though she sleeps through most days because of her night classes."

"Fantastic, so we have an accord. Now, about what I asked you, have you given it any thought?"

"Not as much as I would have liked too. I truly do want harry's happiness but his safety must always come first for me. Would you be willing to allow me a quick inspections of the defenses of Polairix. Once I have seen them, I should be able to give you a for sure answer on Harry staying with you. If it were anywhere else i wouldn't even entertain the idea, but Polairix IS known as the impenetrable castle for a reason. Was it not your ancestor in Polairix that withstood the dark lord of his generation's time and his army of wizards and assorted dark creatures for nearly 7 months, eventually forcing a retreat without ever sending his army outside the castle."

"Leonidas Polaris, fantastic general and battle mage, he was fairly terrible at wards and runes though. Of all of the Polaris line, he might be one of the only ones to not contribute to the castle's vast magical defenses. He did add extra defenses around the outside of the castle though, even managed to divert a nearby river's flow to create a sort of Moat in front of the castle, except instead of stillwater it can swallow a person and send a boat downstream fairly quickly."

"Alright headmaster, I will allow a QUICK overview of the defenses to judge their strength. I will by no means allow a detailed analysis as that would only weaken the defenses having another besides a Polaris aware of all of them. Nor will I allow you to examine the castle itself unless visiting Harry, and even then I will be on hand to explain things as I don't want you wandering about the castle. Polairix's defense are only fully known by the line of Polaris, and I shall not be the one to break that tradition.""

"Fair enough, I'm sure that a quick overview should be enough. Now, onto happier subjects, Flopsy, would you have any more stories to entertain us with this afternoon?"

"I do have a few, I'll start with the one about the old man that called me Flopsy one too many times…"

"I'm sure he lived a long and fruitful life."

—

Days went by, and Alex soon found himself facing a gaggle of students from his year, minus a few slytherins that said that 'they were sure it wouldn't be worth their time' and other students that didn't want the extra work. Alex was sure anybody and their mother could guess who those kids were. But he had every Ravenclaw in his year and most of the lower years, even a few fourth years. Representing Hufflepuff were most of his year and a few in second year, but that was about it. Gryffindor had the largest showing, with most of the students from his year, the year above, and both years below, even a few OWL year students showing up for revision. Slytherin was heavily in the minority with his three friends, Lilith Moon, and Theodore Nott making an appearance. He was thankfully accompanied by two professors, as they figured after this a good few would stop coming to the lessons because they only came to check it out, and after the drop off it would be easier to deal with. He had chosen of the professors that offered, Flitwick, and Remus to aid him. Flitwick because Alex knew he was a duelling champion back in the day, and Remus seemed fairly experienced in defense.

Standing in front of such a large group of people should have been a daunting experience, but honestly Alex wasn't feeling too much pressure, he was only Teaching a more basic version of what he was already doing for his friends.

"Alright everyone," he began. "You've all showed up today because you want to learn beyond the classroom. I commend you for that. But, before we can learn more advanced things, we must begin with the basics… tell me, how many of you are proficient with either the stunning spell, the disarming jinx, or a basic _protego _shield?" he got mostly raised hands from the group, so he pointed to random students in the crown and motioned for them to come forward. Once they were all in a line, he spoke. "I want all of you to attempt to best me in a mock duel, all of you versus little old me. Now before you think that six versus one is unfair, we will be limited to either basic shield charms, stunning spells, or _expelliarmus_. Professors Flitwick and Lupin shall referee, and call the match. Begin on their count of ten."

Once the countdown ended, the six students stood there for a moment, wondering if he was serious, then began firing stunners and disarming jinxes. Alex just put up a _protego_ and let the spells break against his shield like water on rock. After nearly 3 minutes of this the students were tiring out, but alex had just sat and taken up a meditative position, wand still holding up the shield. After 6, the students had all stopped firing to catch their breath, and Alex took his chance to strike much like a predator would ambush prey. Dropping his shield charm he fired off a rapid line of stunners, shooting off nearly ten before the students could stand back up, only one managed to get a shield charm going sitting down, and two stunners blasted against the shield causing it to fall, but he remained awake, only to have his wand ripped out of his hand a moment later by an _expelliarmus_.

"Now class, what did these students do wrong?" Alex asked, moving his shoulder in a circle where his arm had grown tired holding up the _protego_.

"They hesitated." Daphne said.

"That they did, they waited nearly 5 seconds before casting a spell. They could've tried to catch me unawares with quick spellfire but they didn't, not that it would've helped. What else?"

"They didn't coordinate." Hermione stated.

"Also right, they all fought separately, each trying to take me out on their own, they could have done 2 groups of 3, 3 groups of 2, 1 group of 6, but they didn't work together at all, if they had dedicated shielders, the stunners I fired wouldn't have been nearly as effective."

"Anything else? Surely they did something else wrong, they have such a track record already." the 6 looked aggravated at this, but most of the young students giggled, fred even going so far as to give him a thumbs up for the joke.

"They didn't communicate?" an obviously asian ravenclaw said, though phrased it as a question.

"True, but that falls under the lack of teamwork, good try though."

"They didn't move at all." Harry said.

"BINGO! They didn't move. At. all. What is the best defense for a spell? Answer, **don't be there**! Move out of the way, I knew my shield would last against them, and they didn't have any spells that could go through it due to the rules of the challenge, so I kept mine up and sat down. But they never bothered even attempting to either raise a shield or move! They stood there like a practice dummy and let me treat them like one."

"For the rest of the time, pair off in teams of 3, find another team of three, and practice those three spells against each other. Use them how you saw me use them, if I see anyone struggling I'll swing by and help."

All in all, it was a successful lesson, but it let Alex know he would not be teaching for a career, and that he probably would not continue this next year. It was one thing to help a small group of friends, but a giant class was an entirely different thing. 'Maybe I can pawn this off on Harry once he's trained up, he seemed very good at helping Hermione and Ron and the other team…'

_'Perhaps, but first you would need to somehow convince him to do it.'_ astrape stated in a know it all voice.

'Easy, just get Hermione to do it, he'll do anything she wants, he's whipped and they're not even dating.' he laughed

'_Careful little one, one day you'll be just like him and I'll remind you of how you laughed at him before I laugh just the same.' _his avian sister teased.

'You wouldn't laugh at me astrape, you love me too much for that!' he said confidently.

'_Little one, I can love you and laugh at you, I don't need to choose one or the other.'_ she retorted.

'Yea, knowing you I'd hear a giggle for the rest of the day after you finished cackling.'

'_I do not cackle!' _

_ '_I'm sorry to have to tell you this Astrape, but you totally cackle.'

—

Alex quickly settled into his new routine, train, help his friends, meet the headmaster and hat, teach the club, relax, and sleep. He was stressed out at first, but surprisingly he was not the most stressed of his group of friends. That title went to the bookworm Hermione Granger who was somehow attending every class offered at third year level. Alex didn't know how she was doing it, but when he confronted her about it all she would say was "I have an arrangement with Professor Mcgonagall." and urged him to drop it. So he did, reluctantly, informing her to find some time to relax or he'd bring it back up as too much work could overload her, though so far she seemed to be bearing the extra course weight better than most would.

An irritant in his life, though, was the young Malfoy, who just could not learn to stay away from Alex, and insisted on bothering him every chance he got. Alex was near to the point of cursing him without him being cursed at first, which has happened a few times, but something had to give, or he would snap and put Draco in the infirmary.

The year was into October now, temperatures dropping forcing alex to find indoor places to exercise and teach the group. Though he enjoyed cold weather, he had no wish to jog through the snow first thing in the morning, which was becoming more and more likely every day. Finally he broke and asked the headmaster, who offered him use of a classroom to exercise in, but alex needed more free space than that for his runs and was forced to turn him down. Dumbledore finally gave up and told Alex that asking the elves for a place might work, as they have seen more of the castle more times than even he had.

Following directions given by the man to the kitchens, he stumbled upon a near army of elves working at a frantic pace in a large kitchen area, brushing past one another, lost in their own tasks, some singing to themselves while they worked, others whistling or humming, some just enjoying silence. Alex went to the closest elf that looked to be free and cleared his throat, causing the elf to jump and look up at him.

"Little master be wanting something?" the elf croaked, sounding advanced in years, looking it too if the extra wrinkles on his face were anything to go by.

"Uh, yes. I was wondering if any of you, while cleaning the castle, have stumbled across a suitably large training room that I could use? It would need to be spacious, as I run for part of my exercises. I would also like to know if you have any enchanted training dummies stashed away anywhere, I'm sure at some point in time the castle would have had some."

"I know a room little master, tizzy will show you, just follow me." he made his way to a back door on the other end of the kitchens, walked down a small hallway, to a spiral staircase leading upwards. "Come with me, little master." he beckoned, climbing the stairs with a small hop in his step every now and then, belying his age. After a short climb, the two exited and came out from a door behind a suit of armor that turned into normal brick upon a snap from Tizzy. He turned a corner and they came upon a tapestry that Alex knew the name of, but could not remember at this moment. It depicted a man attempting to teach trolls to dance, but showed the trolls fighting back against his attempts every now and again.

"This be the Tapestry of barny the barmy… walk three times past the wall next to the fabric thinking of what master wants, and the room shall appear little master." Tizzy instructed seriously. Alex did it, mainly humoring the elf he was sure was senile, only to gape when a door did in fact appear where the elf had pointed to.

"Incredible…" he breathed, looking through the door to see a large training area, with duelling arenas littering the center of the room, and a large track surrounding the arenas for him to run on. The room itself was nearly as large as a football field, surely employing liberal enlargement charms to actually work inside the castle. He saw on the side of the room a row of duelling dummies in a resting state, and on the left he saw a small eating area for breaks, across the back wall bookshelves covered the space, each filled with different texts, some as basic as fantasy fiction, others complicated arithmancy texts and other magical texts of varying levels of difficulty.

"Thank you very much Tizzy, this will do nicely." the elf merely gave a smile and a bow in response before popping back to the kitchens.

Meandering through the room to take everything in, Alex decided his friends **definitely**__needed to know about this room. He went back to the common rooms in slytherin and was able to grab Blaise there, who told him Daphne and Tracey were in the library. Arriving there he noticed Hermione was there as well, and, telling the three of them he wanted to show them something, got them up and moving towards gryffindor tower. Alex sent hermione through as he didn't know the gryff's password, and upon her return set off towards the room the elf showed him. They thought he was crazy but humored him as he paced past the door 3 times, informing them that to enter they needed to think of what kind of room they needed, and somehow the magical room would make it. He decided to show them the same training area he saw, and opened the now revealed door, ushering them all inside. Shutting the door behind him, he was met with slack jaws and wide eyes gazing at the exercise area.

"what...how...WHAT?!" shrieked Hermione. "This...this goes against gamp's law! How does it create the objects from nothing? This shouldn't be possible… but it is! How does this room work?" she got quieter as she went into her thoughts, pondering the impossible room.

"Maybe the room takes objects from a different room…" Daphne mused. "Alex said the elf showed it to him, maybe the elves use a version of the room to store things or something similar. It can't be breaking laws of magic, there has to be an explanation."

"There's an easy way to test that hypothesis." Blaise piped up. "We leave the room and ask for the storage configuration for it."

"OUT. NOW. I need to know!" hermione stated, practically dragging Harry out by his hand, much to Alex's amusement.

So out they went, Alex pacing in front of the door, asking for a room to store things this time. Opening it this time, his jaw nearly dropped at the Pillars of random things scattered throughout the room that seemed even larger than before. There were things stacked in pillars reaching far above even Hagrid's height, covering the room in its entirety besides rows for people to walk through, organized similarly to a cluttered, disheveled library. From the entrance Alex could even see things moving in the darkened corners of his vision, signifying different infestations that would need to be dealt with for them to safely explore the room. Looking at his friends, he noticed they were all still in shock, besides Harry who appeared to just be going with the flow of things at this point, walking over and sitting on a stack of books, taking a wary look at them before he sat to make sure none would fight back or try to bite him or anything of that sort.

Alex sat down next to him, Blaise and Tracey joining them soon after, and they stared at the sight of Hermione and Daphne being dumbfounded for at least 3 full minutes before Harry and Tracey decided to snap them out of it. Coming to their senses, they looked around and noticed that everyone had moved from their sides and flushed slightly, realizing they had spaced out for a fair amount of time.

"This room really is incredible, we simply have to examine it completely, just think of all the antiques that could be here." Hermione said.

"I agree, but first we'll need to clear the infestations here out. I'm fairly certain I saw some cornish pixies flying around earlier not to mention what else could be in here. There could be boggarts, doxies, maybe even a ghoul if we're unlucky." Alex stated.

"After it's cleared out, we can search the room for anything of use or extreme rarity, and sell the rest for a small fortune…" Daphne vocalized.

"Maybe, but I don't think we'll make that much, as much as we'll probably decide to keep."

"Have you seen the size of this bloody room, I'm sure we will come out of this at least 2,000 galleons richer per person."

"6 of us, 12,000 galleons… I could see us coming out of here with that, but I'd say closer to 1,500 considering what we'll decide to keep."

"Whatever, we can figure out the tally when we have the room sorted, I'm sure this will take most of the year even with 6 of us, maybe even into next year."

Giving the room one last glance, they decided to leave it until they could spare some time to properly explore it, and said their goodbyes for now.

—-

AN: Made this chapter shorter than usual cause if i kept writing Id get into halloween when things start to pick up again and wind up with like 15k words, i try to keep around 10k, 11k max. Hope yall are enjoying the story, im thinking about stopping with song titles that match the theme of the chapter for chapter titles and coming up with actually creative titles, so might see some of that, see you next time.


	5. Chapter 5: This is Halloween

Defiance of Fate chapter 5

This is Halloween

I do not own harry potter or its magnificent world, only any OCs i introduce

_"Hell is empty and all the devils are here."_

— **William Shakespeare**

Going to Dinner, Alex noticed Hermione was in a state today. She appeared frazzled and had a look of extreme annoyance on her face. Harry was sitting next to her trying to calm her down, with ron sitting across from them looking to be near laughter looking at her.

"Any reason Hermione looks like she's about to snap and go on a killing spree?" Alex inquired.

"She got pissed at Lavender for trying to defend trelawney, apparently the fraud predicted lavender's bunny's death. I think she called it binny or something like that." ron said.

"Blinky… that was its name, and just because she can word a sentence to make it sound like she knew, doesn't mean she isn't a fake!" Hermione said crossly.

"You know, she might not be a fake, but at the very least, she shouldn't be a teacher from what I've heard. For someone who has an inner eye, she's a terrible prophet."

"What's a prophet?" Harry asked.

"That's what trelawney supposedly is, you mean she isn't even teaching you types of seers? That only further proves my point that she shouldn't be in a classroom setting… Prophets are seers that hear prophecies, and speak them aloud, though they have no memory of it afterwards, another type is an oracle, someone who sees the future, and actually remembers what they see. Many greeks used to worship oracles as messengers of the gods, it's where the oracle of delphi got her name. If you want a teacher, an oracle usually makes a better one because they know what it's like to experience their inner eye, whereas prophets it's just a toss up of whether or not they can be a capable teacher; and from what I'm hearing it sounds like trelawney is a failure if not an outright fraud."

"She's definitely a fraud, she's predicted harry's death every day since we started attending that waste heap of a class." Hermione said.

"I'm sure Dumbledore made sure she was the real deal before he hired her." Ron stated dismissively.

"Maybe so, but he didn't make sure she could teach, he did the same thing with Snape, he might be a potions master but he should not be around children." Harry countered, and Ron just shrugged as a reply.

"It is worrying, the level of education we receive here at times isn't it…" Alex mused. "The headmaster should really ensure that they're capable before hiring, not giving them a year, or in Snape and Trelawney's cases, multiple years, to damage the education of students. Oh well, what can you do." he sighed.

"Right, I'm going to prepare for the next lesson for the defense club, I'm thinking basic spell chains, like _aguamenti_ and _glacius_. Take care you guys."

_**-LINE BREAK-**_

Before anyone knew it, halloween was upon them, and Alex entered the great hall to find Harry sitting with his friends, but Alex saw something off about him. He looked on edge, as though waiting for something to go wrong. 'He looks like I did the boggart day.' Alex thought warily. Suddenly much more alert, he made his way over to them, and sat across from them, jolting Harry out of his thoughts in the process.

"So, are we preparing for a fight?" Alex questioned seriously.

"What?" Hermione asked.

"Well it's just, you all look like you're expecting an army to burst through the doors at any moment now, so, what's up with the wariness?"

"Well… it's just that…" she began but Harry cut in.

"Every Halloween, without fail as long as i've been at Hogwarts, something bad has happened. First year Hermione was attacked by a troll. Second year Mrs. Norris was petrified by a basilisk and I got the blame for it. I'm waiting for something to happen, I don't know what it will be, but I **will** be ready this year…"

"Well, there is one difference from the previous years and this year." Alex said.

"What's that?"

"This year, anybody that fucks with you, fucks with me too." he said cheerfully, smiling even as Hermione berated him for his language. "And trust me when I say that screwing with me is **not** something anyone would want to do lightly." his eyes started glowing an icy blue as he said this, smile growing slightly menacing for a moment, relaying just how serious he was.

"Mate, when you want to be, you're seriously scary." muttered Ron.

"Thank you." he replied.

Going through the motions of the day, Alex kept a check on his surroundings for bad news, ready for anything to happen, but at dinner that night, he found himself relaxing, even though the trio of lions were tenser than ever. Asking them why, he found out if was usually at or after the feasts that things tended to go south. There was no chatter at this meal, only silence between the four, with an undercurrent of tension, like a coiled spring, which kept them ready for anything. Eventually they had to separate to go to their separate common rooms, so Alex joined up with his slytherin friends he hadn't spoken to much today, and informed them that something might happen tonight. Upon being queried as to why, he just shrugged and said 'Potter's Law'.

The young lord had managed to seat himself on the couch in the common room and open his homework when snape burst into the room, ordering all students up and ready to go to the great hall. He went down the separate bedrooms getting everyone out, and proceeded to lead them to the hall, wand out, which prompted alex to do the same, along with his friends. Entering the common room, he saw the gryffindors already there, Ron looking especially pale, and other houses starting to stream in behind slytherin. He chose to sneak his way over to Harry while everyone was still coming in, and ask him if he knew what had happened.

The black haired teen then informed him that Black had broken into the gryffindor dorms, and wrecked Ron's bed before vanishing. Alex hissed out a breath, and looked at Ron who still seemed pretty shaken up over the whole mess, which Alex understood, he wouldn't want to know a mass murderer had been near where he sleeps either. He decided to go and show some support, and walked over to ron to put a comforting hand on his shoulder, to which Ron looked and him for a moment and steeled himself, showing that he'd be fine. Soon enough, they were instructed to group up by houses and go to sleep, but Alex was not going to sleep by any means tonight, so he chose to sit against the wall, wand out and ready, but hidden from easy sight. Mcgonagall attempted to come over and reprimand him, but Dumbledore steered her away, sending Alex a tired gaze, one of one fighter to another, someone who could understand the anxiousness of waiting before a fight, as though waiting for the calm to break and the storm to arrive.

While Dumbledore may not approve of children fighting, he could plainly see this was no ordinary child, much the same as young Harry, who Dumbledore knew was doing the same thing, albeit more subtly pretending to be asleep. He chose to leave it be as unless he forced draughts down their throats, there would be no sleep coming to them tonight. He soon left with many of the professors to continue the search for black, leaving the great hall in the capable hands of Professors Flitwick and Sprout.

_**-LINE BREAK-**_

Morning arrived all too quickly for many students, but for some the night seemingly dragged on, endeavoring to remain under the darkness of the cloudy night. Eventually though, Alex saw the clouds growing brighter, and knew dawn had arrived. Restless soul that he was, he knew he would need a pepper up to make it through the day, so made a mental note to visit pomphrey soon. Not long after dawn the Heads of house began waking their charges, and directing them to ready themselves for the day. Alex chose to put off going for an energy replenisher potion until after his exercise and breakfast, so as to get the most benefit from it, and made to do some abbreviated training, because being locked in the great hall for the night put a damper on his early morning routine.

A few gruelling hours later, he finally got a pepper up from Madam Pomphrey, along with an admonishment and a lecture about getting proper rest; a healthy mind and body equal a healthy magic and all that stuff Alex was sure he'd heard a dozen times from his tutors in Polairix. He walked with a pep in his step right up until his last class. With the last dregs of the pepper up wearing off, he decided a trek to his dorm for a nap was in order. He didn't even bother going into his trunk, literally falling onto his bed, asleep nearly instantly.

He was woken up by banging on his door some time later, and meandered his way over to it and opened it, releasing a large yawn while staring at the scowling face of professor snape.

"Mister Polaris, why are you not at dinner?"

"I was asleep, sir. I was unable to sleep last night and felt the pepper up I received from the infirmary wearing off, so I made my way here for a nap."

"Mister Polaris, why did you not deign to inform anyone that you would be doing this, especially during dangerous times such as these, when convicts are breaking **into the castle…**" his voice got deeper near the end, showing his anger at the situation slightly. "When a student is missing and no one knows where they are, and a convicted killer broke into this very school the previous evening, the staff tends to assume the worst! Detention for failing to report to the great hall, tomorrow night in the potions classroom." he swivelled on the spot and walked away, cloak billowing in a way that impressed the young wizard. 'I wanna learn how to do that.' Alexander thought.

'_I don't think the greasy one seems very willing to give you lessons on how to do it, little one.' _Astrape added her own opinion

'I know, but that doesn't make me wanna learn it any less.'

_**-LINE BREAK-**_

He skipped dinner that night to go back to sleep, and wound up waking an hour earlier than usual the next morning as a result. He decided to not be wasteful with the extra time and went to start his exercises early.

He was walking towards the room of requirement when movement caught his eye outside, so he looked out the window and saw a small orange blur making its way into the forbidden forest that looked suspiciously like a certain fur ball that was owned by a fuzzy haired girl. He made a note to tell Hermione to keep her pets safe if she wanted to continue having a pet, and started back towards his destination. Finishing his workout earlier than usual, he decided to head outside to the shore of the lake to relax for a bit, as it was a cold day outside, perfect for cooling down. While sitting against a tree watching enjoying the view of the lake, he noticed a menagerie of animals exiting the forest. The first out was Harry's snowy owl, Hedwig, who was flying circles around her two slower companions, Crookshanks, and a large black dog, only slightly smaller than a wolf, though that could be attributed to the fact that it looked very malnourished.

Alex was shocked, not only had crooks found a forest predator, he made friends with one! He cautiously made his way over to the two, accidentally stepping on a twig because he was busy staring at the trio, which alerted them to his presence. '_Little one, that mutt feels off, the same way that red head's rat does. Be careful, I do not know what it means, but it can't be good.'_

_'_Damn, alright Astrape, but be ready to take form and assist.' he replied seriously, still warily approaching the staring animals.

"Ok mutt, lets keep calm like we are now, alright…" he began. "I'm not here to hurt ya, I just wanna get my friend's pets to go away before you decide to hurt them." at this Crookshanks hair stood up and she hissed at Alex, while Hedwig landed on the Dog's back and hooted at him. The dog itself stared at him warily, watching carefully for something, though Alexander did not know what. "Look mutt, I have some food-hold on…" he began rummaging in his robe, and pulled out a trunk, which he proceeded to unshrink and open. The dog was openly growling at this point, but Alex couldn't be bothered to care as he _accio'd_ some chips he'd had in a stasis spell to prevent going stale. He put his trunk back away, and began shaking the bag at the dog, who looked thinner than ever. The mutt put his snout lower to the ground and began whining, waving a paw at the chip bag. Alex ushered Crooks and Hedwig over to him, and when they grudgingly complied as they knew he wouldn't stop until they did, he slowly made his way closer to the dog, opening the bag, whilst wandlessly transfiguring a nearby stick into a bowl. He poured the bag of chips into the bowl, and the dog instantly padded over and started munching on the food, tail wagging happily. The young lord decided to take a risk and bent down, reaching out and scratching the dog behind its ears while it ate.

"You know, pretty much everyone I know would call me an idiot for this. Hell, most would call me an idiot for even being out here alone with black on the loose, let alone petting a wild dog, not knowing whether or not it was docile. Don't worry mutt, if black comes along I'll deal with him, you just keep on munching." the dog actually stopped to whine for a moment during his talk, but soon went back to eating.

The dog finished its meal and left quickly, leaving behind his companions with Alex to trot off into the forest. Hedwig left relatively quickly to fly back to the owlery, giving them a farewell hoot, while Crookshanks slinked off in the general direction of Gryffindor tower.

Alexander retreated back into the warmth of the castle as well to get ready for breakfast.

_**-LINE BREAK-**_

Sitting in the Slytherin stands at the Quidditch Pitch, wind howling around them sending sheets of rain flying at the spectators from all angles, Alexander could only wonder why exactly people were so fanatic about Quidditch. Sure it was the only sport professionally played in England, but these people were cheering so raucously that Alex couldn't hear himself think, let alone try to speak to Daphne or Blaise. It was near cult level in all honesty.

Alex himself had no great love for the sport. He wasn't even particularly fond of flying itself, preferring a quick apparition or portkey to being forced to rely on a broom or carpet. Don't think him unappreciative of others flying skills, though. He could admire the near perfect synchronization the Weasley twins displayed in their beater routine, as though they were one mind inhabiting two bodies. He could appreciate the outright skill Harry and the Hufflepuff seeker, Cedric Diggory, were displaying in their attempts to outmaneuver one another. He could commend Oliver Wood for the near impossible positions he took to stop the quaffle from entering the hoops. He liked Quidditch, but he would never be as obsessed with it as much of these fanatics around him were, and he wouldn't even be out in this monsoon were Harry not playing. He felt that he could at least come see how good Harry actually was, as many non-Slytherins praised his flying skills.

And praise-worthy he was, performing feats many students wouldn't even attempt, leaving it to quidditch professionals who get paid to risk their necks to do risky stunts like a wronski feint. The young lord watched Harry and Cedric spiralling around each other, flying up and up and up until they disappeared into the storm clouds high in the sky.

'Do you think we should lighten up the storm for them, Astrape?' Alex queried as he saw lightning flashing quite often, striking the ground around the pitch.

'_Unless you are prepared to reveal me to the general public of the school, then I don't think it wise, little one.' _Astrape replied.

'Yea, best not. Just a thought.'

Suddenly he saw Diggory descending from the clouds at a rapid rate, and squinting, Alex could just make out a fleck of gold getting beaten around by the heavy winds just ahead of him. The speck dove straight at the ground, attempting to shake its pursuer, but Cedric was steadfast in giving chase, a predator hunting its prey. Cedric pulled up off the ground with mere feet between him and a nasty splat and sped off after the snitch that had already begun crossing the field at near ground level, the blades of grass nearly brushing its quickly beating wings.

So caught up was Alex in watching Cedric about to best Harry, that he **almost** missed a dark shape flying into the cloud layer. He had only caught it out of the corner of his eye, so was uncertain whether he had imagined it or not. Alex was a fighter, however, and a good one. He knew to trust his instincts, and the hair standing up on his arms and the back of his neck signalled danger nearby.

He was distracted by movement out of the corner of his eye once more, but this was much more distressing. Harry Potter quickly became visible to Alex as he came through the cloud layer, sans broom and unconscious. Alex scrambled to save Harry, raising his hand the same time Dumbledore raised his wand, and both shouted out clear for the screaming, panicked audience to hear, "_ARRESTO MOMENTUM!" _Harry's descent slowed to a crawl, then stopped entirely, leaving him floating slightly above the ground, saved in the nick of time. This wasn't the end of the troubles they were facing, though.

Alex was leaving the stands, and crossing onto the grass of the pitch itself, when suddenly droves of the dark shapes he had seen earlier descended from the cloud cover and Alex realized they were in fact dementors, and dozens of them at that. Alex felt a warmth cover the stands, and saw that the teachers and Dumbledore had all cast patronuses, attempting to repel the ghastly foes. Only Dumbledore's patronus, an ethereal phoenix, was having any sort of success in repelling the creatures, the rest of the teachers getting overwhelmed through sheer numbers.

Alex realized that eventually they would be overwhelmed, and then the spectators would be in danger of getting kissed once again. He needed to think of something quickly, something that would push back the dementors, or send them into a retreat altogether. So he did the first thing that came to his mind, and drew his wand. "_FIENDFYRE!" _Alex roared, sending the horde of students and other spectators into a panic. Voluminous amounts of the cursed flame streamed from his wand, forming first a gigantic ring around the stadium, then shapes began to become visible in the magic-consuming fire. The first creature to fully form itself was a Dragon, and once it became more defined it was a clear likeness to a Hungarian Horntail, a particularly vicious breed of the creature. The second shape that became visible was a leviathan of a serpent, something Alex quickly realized was a Basilisk, at least a replica of one. The third and final shape the flames took was a griffin, a behemoth half-eagle, half-lion creature. The three flames given form ran a circle around the stadium, consuming naught more than the grass the flaming feet and slytherin serpent directly touched as they were being so tightly controlled by the young wizard. Alex had sweat forming on his brown, unseen though it was in the storm, as he directed the hell-fire upwards, towards the foes attacking them.

The flames let out mighty roars and screeches, and left the ground the fly at the dementors, their only tether to the ground being the flames still pouring out of the Lord Polaris' wand. The cursed flame charged at the soul sucking creatures, rain turning to steam before it even touched them, and decimated the group of dementors.

_Fiendfyre_, at its core, is a sentient flame, immune to water. The flame itself is easy to summon, but what makes the spell so difficult to cast is that the person who summons the flame needs to have an iron will they can exert to control the flames, otherwise the flames will free themselves and consume all in the general area, until it eventually fades back to its own world. The flames themselves consume magic, and so long as there is magic for them to consume, they will fight to remain in this world, and gluttonously consume it. The spell is classified as a dark spell for this reason, as it is extremely destructive. Alex, though, had an iron will and then some, and had mastered the spell perfectly.

The flames, once making contact with the dementors, instantly burned through a solid third of their numbers, consuming the magic that allowed the creatures to survive, destroying them almost instantaneously. The other two thirds quickly panicked and fled, leaving the stadium, and the school as a whole, before the flames could destroy any more of their kind. Once the danger had passed, Alex forced the fire back to its own dimension, and cancelled the spell, releasing a tired sigh as he did so, and dropped his wand arm back to his side.

The crowd had fallen deathly silent, watching as this child, younger than many of them present, performed an extremely dark spell perfectly and **saved **them with it, killing dementors in the double digits, a feat thought nearly impossible, while doing so.

Dumbledore apparated down from the stands to directly in front of Alex, and stared at him inscrutably for a few moments before saying "I think it best if you accompany me to my office Mister Polaris. First, we shall deliver young Harry to the infirmary." so off they went, Dumbledore levitating Harry in front of him, while Alex walked behind him, head held high damn the consequences of his actions. He had just saved them, and Dumbledore knew it as well as he did. Come what may, he knew that no matter what political games were played he would come out on top for the reason that what he did saved everyone, if nothing else.

_**-LINE BREAK-**_

The walk to the infirmary passed in complete silence. Once inside, the Headmaster levitated harry onto a bed at the end of its row, and went to find Madam Pomphrey. Upon returning with her, she tutted at the unconscious boy, and reached into her robes. She pulled out a bronze plaque, and used a sticking charm to put it on the edge of his bed. Once she moved, he could see it had Harry's name on it, and he smirked. He glanced at Dumbledore and saw his lips twitching behind his beard as well.

Albus turned towards the exit and beckoned Alex to come with him. Once they arrived at the Headmaster's office, the door swung open without anyone speaking a password, obviously recognizing Albus' status as headmaster. He walked to his tall-backed chair and sat down, motioning for Alex to do the same.

They held a staring contest for a few moments, before Dumbledore stated plainly, "whilst I do not necessarily approve of your methods, they proved effective and allowed us victory with Harry being the only unfortunate casualty. Many, though, will begin to see you as dark because of your… particular choice of spells. You have opened quite a can of worms, my boy. I expect our esteemed minister," he said esteemed with clear sarcasm. "Will be here on the morrow, once the news of this spreads. He will more than likely attempt to arrest you, and if he has his way, you will be tried in front of the Wizengamot. While I am Chief Warlock, and can somewhat direct the trial to ensure it is fair, the use of Fiendfyre is prohibited. I expect if you avoid a sentence to Azkaban, which knowing you I find likely, then you will still be fined for its use."

"That's fair, save a stadium full of people and get a fine for my spell choice… I expected similar to be honest, but with you there it'll probably be easier than I expected. I was thinking I may have to claim my lordship early just to make sure I get a fair trial, and have a way out and back to Polairix through the Portkey enchantment on my ring if anything goes wrong. How much we talking in terms of the fine?"

"I would guess in the range of 1,000 Galleons to 5,000. Knowing Fudge he will attempt to squeeze the fine for all it is worth, greedy man that he is."

"Expensive as hell for most people, but it's a drop in the bucket for me, what about school-wise, should I expect any trouble there?" Alex asked.

"Not if I can help it. If you get sentenced to Azkaban it would mean your expulsion, but you will be allowed to continue your schooling if it is only a fine. As headmaster I could argue the lives you saved over the use of the spell to condone continuing your education." he explained lightly. "You will, on the other hand, serve detention with me personally for the next month, and during that time we shall help you master...other ways to combat dementors that do not involve fire, such as a patronus." Alex grimaced at this.

"I've tried learning the patronus before, still not able to do more than a slight mist."

"Well you shall be learning alongside Mister Potter, I shall bring Professor Lupin in to aid you both. Under both of our tutelages, I expect you shall overcome your difficulties. But please, no more dark magic inside of my school… with this incident, I shall have the clout I need to remove the dementors from the school grounds as well, so we should be safe from them in the future. In any case, detentions are not necessarily supposed to be fun, but a learning experience." he finished jovially.

"I think that is almost everything I wished to discuss, but there is **one more thing**… was I mistaken in my old age, or was that wandless magic you performed when saving Harry?"

Alex sighed before nodding, "yes, I am advanced in both silent and wandless magic. I was attempting to keep the fact I can do wandless hidden in case I needed a surprise edge, think anyone noticed besides you?"

"Oh, no one of consequence I think. Possibly a few of the teachers, but I think the students were too preoccupied with Mister Potter himself to notice."

Alex relaxed slightly. "That's good at least. Didn't have time to draw my wand. Nice reflexes by the way, what with how quickly you drew yours."

"I saw Harry before you did, my boy. Not to mention the fact I have a fair amount of skill with a wand myself." Albus said chuckling. "That is all I wish to tell you my boy. Be prepared for tomorrow, I shall see you then if what I think will happen comes to pass."

_**-LINE BREAK-**_

Once back inside his dorm, he was greeted once again to silence. His entire house seemed to be gathered in the common room, sans Snape, but when he walked in all the muted discussions he'd heard had been abandoned in favor of staring at him warily, fearfully even.

"Oh sure stare at the guy that saved all of you like he's the next dark lord. No wonder he nearly won the last war as cowardly as you all are, I'm sure it was learned from your parents." he scoffed, then proceeded to walk towards his room. On the way there he was confronted by his trio of snake friends, Daph, Trace, and Blaise. Tracey took the lead in speaking for them and asked, "Are you alright, you're not in trouble for that are you? You shouldn't be, you totally saved us! We've all mailed our parents and told them to look out for you if anyone tries to pull something."

Alex smiled at his friends at that, and replied. "Thanks you guys, it'll definitely help, because it looks like Fudge might try something, at least that's what Dumbledore told me. Oh and yea, I'm fine, haven't used that much power since coming to school so it took a little more exertion than it should have, but I'm okay. It's nice to see you guys aren't cowering around me like all these other COWARDS." he raised his voice at the end so those back in the common room could hear it.

"Why would we be?" Daphne asked. "You're our friend, we know you won't hurt us, and we know you aren't evil." all three of them nodded at this, making Alexander's smile widen.

"Thanks again guys. I'll talk to you later, I've gotta go get cleaned up. Just make sure to be on the lookout for fudge and a contingency of aurors coming for me, that's what Dumbledore's expecting and he said he'd try to watch my back as well in the trial that's probably coming." with that he bid them farewell and went back to his room, showering and changing clothes for the next part of his day.

_**-CHAPTER END-**_

_**AN:**_ oh snap, next chapter of D.O.F finished. I probably could have covered the trial in this chapter as well but I think I'm finding a rhythm for chapter lengths, between 5k and 10k is usually the sweet spot for my chapters and this just **felt** like the place I should end this one.

Don't know when the next one will be ready, y'all know how I operate by this point. Hope y'all enjoyed. R&R pls


End file.
